Cost of living: Ashington branch of Citizens Advice sees high numbers requiring utility bills, debt, and benefits help

The branch’s report to Ashington Town Council shows 3,201 requests for help were supported between April 1, 2022 and January 27, 2023. The 2021-22 figure was 2,621.

The branch has helped generate over £600,000 for clients by maximising welfare benefits, £200,000 in other forms of financial support, and over £100,000 in written off or rescheduled debt.

Citizens Advice Northumberland chief executive Abi Conway said: “The cost of living and the energy crisis are causing a greater demand across all of our services.

“We are trying to do a lot more work in communities as well, working with other groups to try and support more people to access support when they need it.

“I would say it is both of those reasons why the numbers have gone up.”

Utility and communications bills account for 1,346 of the 7,227 issues dealt with so far this financial year, while in 834 instances food banks and other charitable support was involved.

The issue dealt with most was debt, accounting for 1,350 issues. Benefits (1,267 issues) and Universal Credit (895 issues) were also among the most commonly dealt with problems.

Ms Conway said: “We are trying to work much more collaboratively as organisations to make sure that people are getting the right support they need at the right time.

“Conversely, if we come across somebody who needs us to sort out their debts for them, we would obviously make sure that they had food, fuel, and were accessing any extra money or grants that they were able to.

“In the pandemic our demographic shifted and we saw many more younger people who were in work.

“Post-pandemic we have seen those people still continuing to access our support. So we have a good spread across the demographics now.”

Citizens Advice is receiving increased funding from Northumberland County Council after it was shown last year that they are the only holistic advice provider in the area.

They have also used Covid-19 grants and their own financial reserves to increase their capacity.

Furthermore, they have recently been funded to open a new national call centre based in Northumberland and North Tyneside providing advice on managing debt.

Ms Conway added: “We get a lot of people who wait until they are absolutely in crisis point and they come in and say they just thought there were so many more people worse off than them, and they have been trying to do it on their own for so long.

“Of course we are busy. There might be a little wait, whether that is with us or with other partners.

“But I do not want people to get the message not to contact Citizens Advice.

“I think we are very lucky that we have some really good voluntary sector, statutory sector, and health sector colleagues.

“We are all working together on this to try and make it better in Northumberland.”