Citizens Advice West Suffolk urges people with financial issues to ask for help with cost-of-living crisis

"Don’t wait until the bailiffs are knocking on your door before asking for help.”

That is the message money adviser Tracey Tate wants to stress above all others as the cost of living crisis threatens to plunge more and more people into debt, .

Tracey and her colleagues from Citizens Advice West Suffolk believe we have not yet seen anything like the full impact of sky-rocketing bills on everyone from young families to pensioners.

But she fears stoicism, pride and embarrassment could stop some from seeking advice until their situation becomes desperate.

“The most important message is for people not to leave it too late and not to be embarrassed," she said.

“We are not going to judge and it’s such a common problem now. I would guess if you stopped people in the street 50 per cent have debts they are worried about.

“One of the best pieces of advice we can give is don’t wait until the bailiffs are knocking at the door.

“People are very good at using the ostrich syndrome. It’s not unusual for them to turn up with a carrier bag full of letters because they are frightened to open them.

“If they believe they owe £5,000 they may owe £8,000 or more. It’s a bit like peeling an onion, and as you peel it away more things come to the surface.

“We do get people coming in who are terrified – afraid every time a brown envelope drops through the door. Even picking up the phone and having that initial conversation with us is huge.

“With credit card bills we get people who have paid interest only for years, treading water. We don’t judge. We don’t say ‘why did you get into this mess’. We’re not here to find out why the debt occurred but how to get out of it and move their lives on.

“We are unshockable now. But when you think you have seen it all, something else comes up.

“You do have some people that you wake up in the night thinking about. You try to leave it at work but sometimes you can’t.”

Carol Eagles, chief officer of the charity, says they are still waiting to see what the impact of the cost of living crisis will be. “For a while people will make do, and borrow money to keep up minimum payments,” she said.

Eventually they run out of options. “Moving forward I think we are going to see a change in some of our clients. We are going to see more people who are working. The impact on people’s mental health is huge.”

Sometimes they have reached a point where they can’t cope with what the advisers ask them to do, like complete a ‘debt pack’ with questions about their financial situation, which is when extra help can be called on.

“We have the supported advice team here and they are really, really good for clients who are experiencing poor mental health,” Carol added.

Citizens Advice West Suffolk, with offices in Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Haverhill, Mildenhall and Brandon, covers the whole of West Suffolk, and part of Cambridgeshire.

But as Carol makes clear, no request for help will be refused. “We don’t turn anyone away.”

In 2021/22 they dealt with 5,874 clients, with 23,145 issues, and carried out 26,661 activities – which included things like making phone calls and sending emails – on their behalf.

“People rarely come in with one issue. Someone might come in with a benefit problem but also have debts. In the old days we got quite simple queries, like how much annual leave am I entitled to, but now they can Google things like that. Now they come to us when it’s more complex and harder to solve.

“The top issue at the moment is benefits, followed by debt, housing, employment and relationships,”

Last year they helped people manage almost £800,000 worth of debt, and their income gain – that is money generated for the clients in things like benefits, charity support, and food parcels – was £2.3 million.

“We use multiple food banks and sources of support, massively more now than we used to. The build up to Christmas was bad. We’ve been busy. Life is quite desperate now for some people.”

The challenge is as the need for financial help grows, other areas where clients seek advice have not diminished.

They have specialists in welfare benefits, money, employment, child maintenance, energy, plus special help for people with MS and long covid.

People speak first to a general adviser – normally a volunteer and trained in all advice areas – and more are always needed.

West Suffolk’s 72 volunteers also have supervisors to support them. In 2021/22 the volunteers, including the charity’s trustees, supplied more than 34,000 hours of time which works out at a value of over £715,000.

There are three money advisers. Tracey is based in Bury, Aneta in Newmarket, and Vicki in Haverhill. Tracey started with Citizens Advice 16 years ago. Before that she worked for the Civil Service.

She points out that anyone’s financial situation can change very quickly for reasons like an accident, illness, or relationship break down.

“A lot of people have said in the past ‘I don’t want to claim benefits, I will manage’. People are very stoical,” she said.

One entitlement often not claimed is Attendance Allowance for people with care needs, which is not means tested.

Clients make their first approach to Citizens Advice in a phone call or via their website. If debt is identified as one of the issues, a ‘debt pack’ is sent out to discover their income and expenditure and who their creditors are.

“Then we contact them to have a face to face or phone appointment to go through with them how to deal with the debts,” said Tracey.

“You have to be a bit of a detective because sometimes what people put on the debt pack isn’t right. In the cashless society it’s very easy to not know what you are spending. We look at ways of reducing their expenditure, what money they have left, and options to move forward.”

Those options include a debt management plan – an informal arrangement where they look at the client’s disposable income then make offers to creditors.

“It’s ideal if they are going to clear their debts within two years, or things can change in a short period of time,” Tracey explained.

“Debt Relief Orders are the ones we seem to use the most. All three of us advisers are approved intermediaries. They are for less than £30,000 of debt, you can’t be a home owner, and must have a disposable income of less than £75 per month and no assets worth more than £2,000.”

Individual Voluntary Arrangements are a type of insolvency for those with disposable income of £80 a month or more after their essential expenditure, where they agree to pay off their debts over a period of time.

They work for people who want to protect their home or car or are in a job, such as a solicitor or an elected councillor, which could be affected by going bankrupt.

Then there is bankruptcy. It costs £680 to apply for it, which is a hurdle for some people, and it puts your property at risk as assets can be sold to help pay off debts.

Tracey usually sees one client a day, limiting the number so she can devote enough time to each case.

“You have to gear up how you behave with each client depending on their abilities and skills. Sometimes their reading and writing are not good.

“There may be language barriers. If you can find a common ground with them it’s good. I always try to treat a client how I or one of my relatives would like to be treated. You have to be respectful.”

Sometimes the people they see will have hidden their worries from everyone, even their partners.

“The first interview can be quite emotional for clients. I have to be sensitive, building up a rapport. You have to gain that trust to get them to really open up. It’s a two-way thing. The client has to be engaged as well. At the end of the day the choice they make is their choice.

“Our discussions are followed up with a letter. If they don’t get back in touch we contact them to see how they want to move forward. We have quite a lot of people who come in and say ‘I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders’.”

Tracey has noticed an increasingly wide spread of ages of those asking for help, including working people and pensioners.

“That’s a trend I think will continue. When I started I never thought of a pensioner as someone who would be in debt.

“That can be caused by retirement and they realise their income isn’t sufficient, and their nest eggs have disappeared on costs.”

Her recent cases include a pensioner who was £42,000 in debt and in very poor health. They had tried to sort things out and keep their head above water for a long time, but eventually realised they were not coping.

“We managed to secure funding for their bankruptcy payment, arranged food parcels, and extra support, plus some heating oil, was provided.

Another client was a very young ex-care leaver. “They came out of care and were housed but didn’t have the skills to manage their money.

“They were a very, very vulnerable person with lots of ongoing medical conditions who would have been terrified at first to come to us, but we have built up a good relationship and they know they can come to us now.

“My job is very satisfying. You don’t do the job to be thanked but if a client says at the end of it they can see a future for themselves that’s what we’re there for.”

Citizens Advice West Suffolk offers free advice on issues including benefits, debt, employment, housing, family and relationships, energy and consumer problems.

Main funders are West Suffolk Council, Suffolk County Council, the Clinical Commissioning Group, East Cambridgeshire District Council and the National Lottery Community Fund.

To get in touch call free on 0808 278 7868 Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, or email via the website suffolkwestcab.org.uk