Many of the people that come to us are in a state of desperation and feel that their lives are spiralling out of control. Some feel ashamed and embarrassed about debt and loss of income even though they were furloughed or lost their job. They struggle to put food on the table, pay their bills and are threatened with eviction, or worse still are already homeless. Like many of our partner organisations, we are preparing for the flood of people who'll need our help later this year.

Eviction protection and the furlough scheme will cease later this year - we are training more volunteers and recruiting staff to help meet this rise in demand. We will meet with each person quickly, avoid evictions, assess benefit entitlement to maximise income, assess and manage debt with each individual. We also look at the other needs such as provision of a food parcel, mental and/or physical health support 1:1 befriending, employment support/skills development, help with finding a home.