40,000 people living in Cornwall unable to afford essential costs, research suggests
Citizens Advice also warn 43 per cent of Brits find it more difficult to afford essentials than they did six months ago
Last updated 2nd Jul 2024
New research warns 40,000 people living in Cornwall are unable to afford essential costs.
Figures from Citizens Advice Cornwall has found they have more money going out than coming in every month.
The worrying trend of negative budgets - where people’s expenditure on basic bills like energy, housing and food exceeds their income - is a growing problem in the county.
Research from Citizens Advice suggests 43 per cent of Brits find it more difficult to afford essentials than they did six months ago.
Citizens Advice Cornwall Chief Executive, Jon Berg, said:
"What was once a rarity for Citizens Advice services in Cornwall - seeing people come to us in a negative budget - has sadly now become the new normal for our advisers.
"Getting people out of the red and into the black is what we excel in. But we can’t tackle a challenge of this scale alone.
"People are living on empty, cutting back their spending to unsafe levels just to get by. This cannot continue.
"With living standards falling, we need politicians from all sides in Cornwall to get serious about addressing the issue head on."
With a general election looming, Citizens Advice Cornwall’s research also found more than half of voters in all Cornish constituencies said the cost of living, or living standards, was one of the most important issues in determining how they will vote while more than three-quarters said that negative budgets are an important issue.