Citizens Advice ‘helping more than two people every minute with crisis support’

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Citizen's Advice has seen a 50% annual rise in people being referred for crisis support, and is now ‘helping more than two people every minute’.

The charity described helping people during the crisis as like ‘trying to hold back the tide with a bucket’. More than 137,000 people were referred for support between January 1 and August 31 – a 50% increase compared with the same period last year, and a 167% rise on the same period in 2019.

Citizen's Advice is helping more than two people every minute typically with crisis support during the working day. So far this year it has helped 50,000 people with energy debts, marking a 22% increase on the same period last year. READ MORE:'Everyone is going to struggle apart from the rich' - concerns over how people will pay energy bills Nearly 16,000 people have also been helped this year so far who could not afford to top up their prepayment meter.

Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “On a daily basis our advisers raise red flags about the situations people are facing: those who are terminally ill and unable to heat their homes, parents going days without food to feed their kids and people unable to afford the bus fare to get to a food or school uniform bank. “They describe helping people during this crisis as trying to hold back the tide with a bucket.