A CHARITY saw record numbers of people seek advice last month as the cost-of-living crisis continues to “squeeze household budgets to breaking point”.
Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) said its bureaux helped people more than 100,000 times in March, the highest on record for individual pieces of advice given.
March also saw the highest number of people helped in over three-and-a-half years, with more than 25,000 individuals seeking advice.
In particular, demand for advice on homelessness was higher in the 2022/23 financial year than in any preceding year and reached its peak in March.
Despite food bank advice typically peaking in December, CAS said more clients than ever before received help in this area from one of its bureaux in March – with more than 3000 pieces of advice given to over 1800 clients.
March also saw the highest number of unique page views (UPVs) on the Advice for Scotland website outside of the pandemic, and the second highest month on record, with more than 400,000 UPVs from over 246,000 users.
The charity said the record-breaking numbers indicate that people continue to struggle with the cost of living and the impact it is having on their lives, such as food insecurity, homelessness, and debt.
It comes in the same week that a chief Bank of England economist said households across the UK need to "accept" that they are poorer.
Huw Pill has said a game of “pass the parcel” is currently taking place in the economy as households and companies try to pass on their higher costs.
CAS chief executive Derek Mitchell said: “The cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze household budgets to breaking point and CABs, so often the early warning system in our economy, are seeing record levels of demand.
“What is particularly worrying is the increasing demand for advice on homelessness and food insecurity.
“In recent months energy had overtaken universal credit as the single top advice issue across the network and we have observed for some time now the link between energy advice and food insecurity – that is clearer than ever here.
“It would be wrong to think that as we head into the summer, higher energy bills will have less of an impact on household budgets, the reality is people are now dealing with the fallout of a long, cold winter than has severely reduced their financial resilience.
“Significant reforms are needed more than ever, such as increasing the value of social security payments and introducing a social tariff for the energy market. Every passing day without these kind of interventions are pushing more and more people to the brink.
“People who are worried about money and bills should seek advice as soon as possible, whether that is online or from a local CAB.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said that “tackling poverty and protecting people from harm” was one of its “three critical missions”.
“The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why both last year and this, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies which tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis,” the spokesman said.
“However, most of the key policy levers needed to address the crisis still lie with the UK Government. We continue to urge them to use all the levers at their disposal to tackle this emergency on the scale required.”
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A UK Government spokesman said: “We recognise the pressures of the rising cost of living which is why we have a plan to halve inflation and have provided record levels of direct financial support – £1,200 for more than eight million vulnerable households last year and up to another £1,350 in 2023/24 for those most in need, including the latest £301 Cost of Living payment which over 686,000 families in Scotland are starting to receive this week.
“This is on top of uprating benefits by 10.1% and making an unprecedented increase to the National Living Wage this month, while our Energy Price Guarantee continues to hold down people’s energy bills.
“We are also giving the Scottish Government an extra £82 million to help people in Scotland with essential costs – this is in addition to the significant welfare and housing powers they already have.”
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