As the cost of living crisis deepens an Inverness based advice service is fully stretched and prioritising most urgent cases
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
AN independent advice service in Inverness has seen a huge increase in demand for its help as the cost of living crisis deepens.
Staff and volunteers at Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey Citizens Advice Bureau are having to prioritise the most urgent cases as they had been working at full capacity before the current situation.
And more people are now being referred to local food banks due to the combined financial hit of rising fuel prices, the high level of inflation and increased interest rates.
Alasdair Christie, the organisation’s chief executive officer and general manager, said the cost of living crisis was a combination of things.
“It started in the main with people coming in severely impacted by energy price hikes and we are expecting that to continue because, as we all know, the price is going to go up in October and January to levels that are just totally unaffordable for many people,” he said.
“We are also seeing people that are getting into difficulty with their mortgages because of course interest rates are going up and fixed interest deals may be coming to an end. We are seeing people that are going into arrears with their mortgages.”
He said that people were having to make tough choices. “We are seeing people starting to get into difficulty – do they buy food or do they pay for energy or do they pay their rent or mortgage?” he said.
“We are seeing people having really difficult decisions that are impacting their financial position and their mental health and wellbeing.”
And he feared that, if the situation continued, there would be an increase in people taking out pay-day loans and log-book loans – where their car is the loan’s security.
He said: “We will start to see vampire-like lending institutions – bleeding people on high interest rates. Which is heaping more and more misery onto people that are burdened and struggling.”
Mr Christie said it was “a real concern” and they were getting more calls.
“We are seeing a shift in the types of issues and we are having to prioritise and do more of the urgent firefighting – the urgency and complexity has increased dramatically and we are having to turn people away that had perhaps not so serious complaints that they wanted help with,” he said.
He confirmed that more people were relying on food banks, adding: “We are referring more people to food banks than we have done previously.
“Food banks are under tremendous pressure and a lot of the churches and the mosque and other religious organisations in the city are doing their bit to help people, as are other organisations too.
“It really is a crisis and it is impacting people’s lives.”
Drew Hendry, SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, said: “We are no longer talking about the energy crisis to come; people are living it now, and many simply don’t know where to turn – and this is summer. Every day constituents are getting in touch to say they have nothing else to give – they are terrified and have nowhere to turn.
“We all understand that the energy crisis is a global issue, but governments choose how they react to these crises.
“Governments across Europe and beyond are stepping up to protect their citizens from astronomical bill rises. Yet, this Tory government chose to turn its back, only offering up paltry support.
“We need an emergency budget and adequate support for households, and we needed it months ago. If they aren’t interested in helping support Scottish families, they should devolve powers to the Scottish Government so they can step in.”
Fergus Ewing, the SNP MSP for Inverness and Nairn, said: “The high costs of energy must have a much stronger response from the UK government.
“People will need much more assistance with fuel bills this winter. The level of bills are now out of control and the result of years of failed energy policies.
“The fundamental cause of the sky-high prices, however, now and for the foreseeable future, is underinvestment in replacing depleted oil and gas fields with new capacity.
“The result is supply cannot keep pace with global demand, which rises as the world population grows.
“There has also, over the past decade, been a total failure to harness the massive renewable potential in the Highlands.”
n Visit https://tinyurl.com/bdfwn9s8 if you wish to find out more,
