Ipswich charity urges people struggling financially to ask for help
Citizens Advice in Ipswich tells us it's expecting a busy 2025
A financial advice charity in Suffolk is encouraging people to take control of their finances now to help with security and stability in this new year.
Citizens Advice in Ipswich tells us it saw a continued increase in the number of people using their services in 2024, and it's expecting that to continue in 2025, with plenty already coming forward asking for help managing debt.
Nelleke van Helfteren is from the charity, which she says helped over 3,000 people last year: "The cost of living crisis is still affecting many people.
"Citizens Advice in Ipswich helped just under 1000 people with debt last year with over 5000 debt issues.
"We also helped 3,500 people with benefits issues last year and gave support to over 1200 people with food bank issues."
How to stay in control of your money
Nelleke told us that the first thing everyone should do is create a budget.
This way we can see where our money is going, how it is being spent and recognise anything we can cut back on: "It's really important that you take some steps to stay in control of your money and draw up a budget...
"Remember that you've got to include all your general spending and any other bills you have to pay.
"Be realistic about what you need for essentials, like food and travel, if your income fluctuates, use bank statements and benefit award letters and Universal Credit.
"... The bank should be able to tell you what regular payments you have. If you find subscriptions you don't want, you can contact the company and cancel them.
"In future, before you sign up for anything, make sure you know what you'll get, how long for, and what it costs, and if you use any free trials, set a reminder up a week before the free period ends to cancel it so that it doesn't roll forward.
"Keep evidence of any subscription cancellations in case you'll need it in the future."
We asked Nelleke how Citizens Advice can help people who seek advice.
She explained the charity identifies what the priorities are when addressing pre-existing issues: "We work out what their debts are.
"We help work out what their income is, what their expenditure is.
"We'll look at the debts they've got and we will help people organise their debts in priority order.
"It's most important that people keep paying rent, utility bills, Council tax, television licence and car insurance...
"If you've got credit debts or if you have an overdraft or a loan, we can work with you to negotiate a repayment programme with your creditors.
"We can always help people in some form or another.
"It's really important that people do ask for help."