Spalding CAP Debt Centre and Citizens Advice South Holland ready for increase in clients

People in South Holland with debt worries caused, or made worse, by the coronavirus crisis can find help and support at a "Lighthouse" in Spalding.

A Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Debt Centre team, based at The Lighthouse Church, has been supporting families with debt problems throughout the COVID-19 lockdown.

Despite the church itself, in Haverfield Road, being closed to the public, CAP team volunteers have been offering advice and practical assistance by telephone, virtually and delivering essential household items, with help from Agapecare Foodbank Spalding.

Simon Jary, Spalding CAP Debt Centre manager, said: "After opening in February, we have three families in the area who we're working with.

"We have a befriending team who our families are in contact with, checking up on them to make sure they are okay.

"There's also a wonderful team of about 300 people at our CAP headquarters in Bradford who are maintaining relationships with creditors.

"Although we've not had a flood of calls from people yet, we do expect to be quite busy in the coming months as people face the loss of their jobs."

Simon confirmed that CAP was working within social distancing guidelines, with the result that face-to-face meetings with families in their own homes were currently suspended.

"Our commitment is to get people debt-free and 75 per cent of the people we help are on benefits, with the other 25 per cent of clients being a complete mix of people," said Simon.

"We generally go and see people in their homes but, because of the lockdown, we can't do that.

"However, we want to reach out to people by coming alongside them and helping them out of debt."

Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire is also standing by for a rise in demand for its debt counselling services.

Chief officer Simon Richards said: "We're not seeing the same level of demand we'd normally get and that's because all debt collection activities have stopped.

"But unemployment, a sudden drop in income, ill health and increased caring responsibilities means that the coronavirus crisis is having an immediate impact across our communities, affecting a growing number of vulnerable, marginalised, low paid workers and their families.

"Families that have previously been ‘getting by’ have been thrown into financial difficulty, with many people needing to access help in navigating the welfare system for first time.

"Social distancing and lockdown is adding to rural isolation, digital exclusion and marginalisation already experienced across our communities.

"We are not currently experiencing high numbers of debt problems as debt collection is on hold, house repossessions are suspended, benefit reviews are delayed and employment issues deferred while staff are furloughed.

"However, we are likely to see a significant increase in demand on our services as current restrictions and support is eased.

"As we move into the recovery phase and those support packages cease, we expect to see a greater need for our services, with increased financial pressures and job uncertainty, especially for vulnerable groups in insecure work.

"We have been working hard to ensure that social distancing does not mean that people don’t have access to the advice they need.

"We have enhanced telephone, email and webchat service capability to replace face-to-face services."