Cost of living crisis: "More people 'tipped over' into debt"

In today's Spring Budget, it's hoped the chancellor will announce more support for people in West Yorkshire to cope with the cost of living crisis.

The impact of fuel prices and energy bills has left Mr Sunak under pressure to take action.

What is he expected to announce?

• Reports suggest the chancellor will cut fuel duty by 5p.

• Reports suggest he will cut the threshold for starting to pay national insurance tax to £9,900 in April (It's currently at £9,600).

• Benefits including the jobseekers' allowance are expected to rise by 3.1% in April, the expected inflation rate of 8%.

• VAT was cut for the hospitality sector during the pandemic to 12.5%, it's due to return to 20% in April.

"For a lot of people, the problem is pure and simple lack of money."

Sue Anderson from Leeds based debt charity StepChange said:

"We're certainly expecting that a lot of people, who were just about managing, sort of teetering on the bring, but just about keeping their finances together, it's very, very likely that those people are going to be tipped over into having debts they can't afford.

"For a lot of people, the problem is pure and simple lack of money. There isn't enough money coming in, to meet the current and rising costs of the essentials that people need to spend their money on."

We asked Sue what she'd like to see the government announce tomorrow:

"Making more money available to local authorities for local support, upping benefits more than they are planning to."

Joan, is a pensioner in Leeds, she said:

"Everybody is worried about it, particularly the prices in the shops and the heating, everybody is worried.

"I'm pay as you go for gas and electric, and I seem to be putting more than double in than I normally would.

"They need to step in and put some sort of plan in place with the energy providers, so we aren't all struggling, because we can't afford to do everything on the same amount of money that we've got."

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