A leading charity says it's seeing increasing amounts of everyday people unable to afford the basics, skipping meals, going without heating and falling into debt to cover essential bills.
However, the charity says rising costs and low pay is leading to an increase in clients’ incomes not being sufficient to cover their expenditure, even after expert debt advice and reducing all non-essential spending. In 2021 a third of CAP NI clients said they had borrowed money to cover household bills they couldn’t afford.
Last year, just over a third of the budgets created for clients here were unsustainable, meaning households did not have enough income to cover their basic needs, even after debt advice. "Now people are using their credit cards to pay for basics such as food, clothing and other essentials because they can't afford to buy these things any other way.
"If your income hasn't increased or you have no other means of bringing money in, then the budgets are very tight and there's very little left to start paying off debts." “It’s heart-breaking for us all at CAP every time one of our local Debt Centre Managers walks into a new client's home to find an empty fridge and cupboards, dark and cold rooms and piles of bills that the person simply can’t afford.