Scale of debt problem shows cost-of-living crisis isn’t over

FOR the past six weeks, staff at the East Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau, alongside all bureaux in the country, have been running the Stressed About Debt campaign.

The aim is to encourage people to seek advice if they are worried about money and debt.

What we have seen is hundreds of thousands of people using credit to pay essential bills.

Those large bills kept getting larger but people didn’t have the income to keep up, so they turned to credit. And the problem is growing.

The Citizen Advice Bureau network dealt with more than £23million worth of debt from clients last winter.

That represents a 25 per cent rise in the value of debt and a 17 per cent rise in the number of people seeking debt advice compared to last year.

In the coming weeks and months, as inflation slows, you may hear from policymakers who are quick to proclaim the cost-of-living crisis is over.

This is not the case. We will be dealing with the fallout of the crisis for years to come.

In many cases, people’s financial resilience was simply wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of people have been pushed into debt or have seen their existing debt get worse because bills raced ahead of their incomes.

Then there is the wellbeing impact. More than 660,000 people say their debt has impacted their mental health, while over half a million say it has kept them up at night.

These fears, worries and anxieties don’t disappear simply because inflation isn’t as high as it was or meets a government target.

Here at East Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau, we are facing increasing levels of demand.

The cases are often complex and the people involved are often at crisis point.

Despite this, the results we achieve are staggering. Many people have their lives changed by the advice they receive, whether that is having their incomes maximised so more money is coming in the door or renegotiating with creditors to make repayments more affordable.

The key thing is to get advice early. The sooner someone gets advice, the better their potential options are.

East Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau, like bureaux across the country, will be here to help people with their money and debt worries.

We know the crisis isn’t over.