Cost of living: 2022 'broke records' for crisis support - Citizens Advice Cymru

Luke Young, assistant director of Citizens Advice Cymru said records were regularly broken last year

The past year broke records for people in Wales asking for crisis support, according to a charity.

Citizens Advice Cymru assistant director Luke Young said each month it set new records "for some really sad reasons".

He forecast a "looming debt crisis" as people realise the full extent of what they have to pay back after Christmas.

The UK government said millions of low-income households will get new cost of living payments from spring.

The payments include £900 for means-tested benefit claimants that will go directly into bank accounts in three instalments over the financial year, and extra cash support for disabled people and pensioners.

Mr Young said: "Since last January, we have helped more than 17,500 people in Wales with access to crisis support such as food banks and fuel vouchers - nearly double the number for the previous year.

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"We have seen a record number of people coming to us who can't afford to top up their prepayment meter. Since last January, we've seen nearly three times the number of people across Wales being moved onto a prepayment meter for debts than we saw in the same period in 2019."

Mr Young said at the beginning of December, his organisation had record numbers coming for support.

"The support from the UK government is going to be essential for those on means tested benefits in the coming year," says Luke Young

"We've got lots of people living in homes that are really inefficient - they leak heat pretty much. So people are paying over the odds just to keep their houses relatively warm in the winter," he said.

"They will end up paying the cost of that over a longer period. That's particularly a problem in Wales as we have some of the worst housing in efficiency terms in western Europe."

'People are struggling'

Mr Young said reasons for people contacting Citizens Advice ranged from food and energy vouchers to debts.

"We've done some opinion polling that we've released in the past few days which shows that there are a big chunk of households who wouldn't be able to absorb an extra £20 cost monthly in their budgets," he said.

"For some people, that £20 might be a takeaway meal or a Deliveroo, but actually for lots of households, that is make or break"

Over the past 10 years, people have "become used" to living in times of crisis, according to Mr Young.

"Whether it was the the great financial crisis, concerns around Brexit, Covid and now a cost of living crisis," he said.

"From my sense, people have become a bit de-sensitised to how bad things are - which is why I continually repeat this message - people are struggling, we are living in a cost of living crisis."

Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said the UK government remained committed to helping people across Wales with the cost of living.

"In 2022 more than 400,000 households in Wales received £650 to ease family finances, over 600,000 Welsh pensioners received £300 and 400,000 people received a £150 disability cost of living payment," said Mr Davies.

"All of this assistance will continue with the new payments announced for the coming year."

"These payments are part of a wider financial package the UK government is providing as we continue to support people across Wales through the challenges we all continue to face."

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