Citizens Advice West Suffolk, with offices in towns including Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, and Mildenhall, sees increased demand due to cost-of-living crisis

Citizens Advice West Suffolk has seen an increase in the number of people needing its services with the cost-of-living crisis changing the types of issues people are facing.

The advice organisation which has offices in Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Newmarket, Brandon and Mildenhall, has had a difficult year ensuring that resources are matched to those who need it.

This year, it has already seen a 16 per cent increase in those needing the service, on top of a six per cent rise last year.

Carol Eagles, chief officer at Citizens Advice West Suffolk, said: “The cost-of-living crisis means that people are finding it harder to make ends meet. People are needing to increase their income.

“We help people apply for welfare benefits, but we also talk to them about other ways they can boost their income. It might be taking in a lodger or encouraging non-dependents to help pay towards their living costs.

“There’s an increase in people with housing issues so people that need help with rent and mortgage arrears or problems with disrepair in their houses or mould – they are our biggest areas.”

From April 1, 2022, to March 31 this year, the service helped 5,148 clients with 28,588 issues.

The volunteers at Citizens Advice help people with filling out forms, appeals, emails, phone calls or applying for money from charitable organisations.

This winter, Carol said she expected that demand would increase as more people struggled.

“It’s only going to increase because during the summer people haven’t been spending as much on their energy – they haven’t had their heating on,” she added.

“Food and petrol prices are still high compared to what it was like pre-pandemic.”

She said 10 volunteers across the district were vitally needed to ensure that Citizens Advice could continue helping people.

“We rely on volunteers – the more volunteers we have the more people we can help,” she said. “People think volunteers are free, and they’re not because we have to train them.”

To express interest in volunteering, email training@swcab.org.uk.

For more information visit the Citizens Advice West Suffolk website.