Citizens Advice West Suffolk calls for volunteers to cope with increasing demand as festive season and cost of living crisis bites

Citizens Advice West Suffolk is preparing for a surge in demand as a result of the festive season and the increasing cost of living.

The organisation’s chief officer, Carol Eagles, said the branch was struggling to keep up with demand for its services.

“We need more volunteers and we need more people to answer the phone,” she said.

“We have had an increase in clients and we know we are not answering all the phone calls. We do get back to people but we don’t want to miss anyone.

“This is the first time in 13 years I have been worried about how to meet demand.

“This time of year is hard. There is a lot of guilt attached to Christmas for parents.”

During the six-week period from November 7-December 16 the branch helped 1,013 clients compared to 804 in 2021 (November 8-December 17, 2021) – a 26 per cent increase.

During those six weeks it handled 3,978 issues (benefits, debt, housing etc) compared to 2,584 in 2021 – a 54 per cent increase – and 4,170 phone calls, emails, letters etc, a 50 per cent increase on 2,784 in the same six-week period in 2021.

“The main thing we are trying to do is make sure people are getting all the income they are entitled to,” said Carol.

“We are seeing a lot of people who in the old days would have said they didn’t claim benefits. They don’t want to live off benefits so haven’t claimed, but now are worried about the cost of energy and food and wondering where they are going to get the money from.

“We are seeing a massive increase in people wanting help with benefits, energy and housing. We try to see where people can save money or where they can cut costs. We try to plug the gap between income and expenditure by finding where money can be saved or making foodbank or grant applications where we can.

“West Suffolk Council has decided to enhance the Council Tax support scheme. We really welcome this move. It is really positive that it is doing that to support people and it will help lots of residents, but there are still lots of families on low incomes struggling to make ends meet.

“We are also worried about the people earning more but not necessarily on massive salaries and still facing the same cost increases. There may not be ways for them to increase income.

“We would still urge them to get in touch if they are worried.”

In the past six weeks the branch helped 546 clients with benefit issues, 143 people with charitable support of food parcels, fuel payments or local welfare assistance; 97 with debt issues; 125 with housing issues; 97 with relationship issues (child access, divorce, separation) and 151with energy issues, including payments and debt.

Meanwhile, it generated income gain through benefits, charitable support and refunds of £224,755 in the last six weeks

The branch has seen a 280 per cent increase in energy-related issues, along with a 72 per cent increase in benefit issues, 42 per cent increase in debt issues and 85 per increase in budgeting problems.

Citizens Advice top tips for managing finances and saving money include:

- Make the most of your income – check you are claiming all the benefits and tax credits (or Universal Credit) you can.

- Create a budget and look at realistic ways you can reduce your expenses. This could be looking around for best deals or looking at your shopping habits. A spending diary may help you with this.

- Take control of your income. You may find a jam-jar bank account or saving approach can help.

A jam-jar saving method is when you create a budget and split your money up into the various ‘jars’ – each jar corresponding to an area of your budget. This means that you may have a jar for your rent, another for your gas and electricity bill and so on.

- If you have debts speak to your creditors as soon as possible, there may be help available.

Don’t ignore the problem – it won’t go away. The longer you leave it, the worse it gets.

- Whenever considering your payments, priority bills should come first as falling behind can lead to priority debts which can cause particularly serious problems.

Priority debts include: rent or mortgage arrears; Council Tax arrears; gas and electricity; phone or internet bills; TV Licence payments; overpaid tax credit; court fines and unpaid income tax.

Suffolk County Council runs a local welfare assistance scheme which people can self-refer to. Go to https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/community-and-safety/communities/healthier/suffolk-local-welfare-assistance-scheme for more information.

For help, see https://suffolkwestcab.org.uk/ for more information or to get in touch with Citizens Advice.