Concerns for people struggling to live and services struggling to help

Support organisations have spoken about people desperate for help as they struggle to find the money to live amid huge increases in costs of living.

Energy prices have risen by as much as 54 per cent due to an increase in the price cap, meaning bills for many people have virtually doubled, while there have been VAT and National Insurance increases and benefits and wages have stayed at the same levels.

For food banks and debt advice services, this has meant an increase in the number of people making contact to access the services they provide.

At the Black Country Food Bank in Brierley Hill, CEO Jen Coleman said that demand was rising across the region, with more than 70 per cent increase in Sandwell alone.

She said: "People are being faced with many challenges at the moment through increase energy prices and the wages and benefits not increasing, meaning that many people are having to turn to food banks unfortunately.

"We anticipate that demand is going to keep increasing as so many people are coming to end of their ropes, and we've heard a lot from older people who are nervous and anxious about what is going to happen."

Ms Coleman said donations had also dropped for the food bank as well and spoke about what she saw as the dramatic effect the cost of living increase was going to have on food aid charities.

She said: "I think this is going to push us as much as it does those people we are helping as I think many food charities are going to be on the brink of potential collapse due to the demand.

"We hope to be able to keep going, but there's no telling what the next few months will bring and it really is a crucial time for food aid charities.

"There are a lot of people struggling and a lot of reasons why they are struggling and it's a difficult country to be in at the moment, which is not something you would expect."

Other services facing increased call for help have included debt advice services such as Ablewell Advice in Walsall, which provides free specialist advice in relation to debt and welfare benefits.

Chair of the board of trustees Rev. Rachel Wood said the service, which has operated from Central Hall in the town for nearly 10 years, has seen a huge increase in calls asking about access to benefits.

She said: "There's been a dramatic increase because of people wanting to check whether they are entitled to any more benefits and want to know where they can get more money from as they don't have any.

"It's meant us having to increase the amount of debt advice we can give and we've heard some desperate stories, such as the woman who lost her business because of Covid and who has really struggled for the last 18 months.

"They just keep saying how they don't know how they're going to cope and there is a real feeling of desperation as they want us to help them find extra benefits and we have to tell them we can't do that, so people are struggling to work out how they're going to survive."

It's not just younger people who are being affected by the rises in prices as older people are also feeling the pinch and looking at how to fund price increases.

Age UK Wolverhampton CEO Mark Guest said the service hadn't seen a huge increase in calls yet, but was anticipating an increase and spoke about some of the calls already received.

He said: "People have started to contact us who have looked ahead and are a bit worried and say they are unsure about how they are going to be able to pay their bills.

"There are people who are already in debt and might be wondering how to keep their heads above water, such as prepayment metres and being stuck on higher tariffs.

"We're offering all the support that we can, but we are already working at full capacity and we're going to end up in a position where we can't help everyone as we get very limited funding and can't fully fund this service.

"I think we're going to see a lot of older people struggling to pay their bills and the outlook is very bleak, as the financial pressures then begin to impact on mental well-being and it becomes a spiral of decline that is very hard for people to get out of."