Get help to deal with post-Christmas debt

A Stirling-based charity wants to make 2020 the year more locals can break free of debt with their help.

The Forth Valley branch of national charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) runs a free debt help service in partnership with seven local churches in a bid to help locals break free from a cycle of debt.

Through debt counselling, money management, job clubs and support for people breaking habitual dependencies they are part of a network of more than 600 churches UK wide.

CAP is committed to its services being available to all individuals regardless of age, disability, gender, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Forth Valley Debt Centre manager Fiona Welsh said:“Financial problems feel overwhelming but there is free help available to deal with them. If you are worrying about how to deal with money after Christmas, do not delay, make the call today and we can deal with it together.

“We have a freephone number - 0800 328 0006 - to make it as easy as possible to get in touch. The team are ready and waiting to start people on the journey towards getting out of debt.

“They’ll sort out an appointment for you with with a local debt coach from the Forth Valley Centre who will come to visit you in the privacy of your home.”

Poverty affects the whole household, added Fiona, with one in three (27 per cent) of CAP clients having grown up in a home affected by debt and four in five (80 per cent) saying debt had negatively affected their children.

One former client, who wished to remain anonymous, said:“For a start, I have a much better relationship with my children now. When you’re stressed and anxious you’re very short tempered. I was so stressed I wasn’t sleeping, eating properly, I wasn’t looking after myself. I felt so awful a person that I’d got into that situation where I couldn’t feed my family.”

Since opening its first debt centre in Dunfermline, CAP has helped thousands of people deal with problem debt during the past 20 years.

The majority of CAP’s clients (66 per cent) have waited more than a year before seeking help revealing that people are suffering in the grip of poverty while help may only be a phone call away.

More details can be found at: https:// capuk.org/about-us.