More people than ever need our help. Last week we published our latest Impact Report, which shows we gave 2.66 million people one-to-one advice in the 2022 to 2023 financial year. This peaked in March 2023 when we helped over 268,000 people — as high as any month in the previous 10 years.

It hasn’t been easy. The start of 2023 was the bleakest start to a year we’ve ever experienced. We’ve adapted our services to keep helping as many people as possible — seeing 2 people in crisis every minute, needing things like food bank referrals and charitable support. 3 in 4 people who came to us for crisis support did so for the first time, and the number of employed people seeking this kind of help has tripled since 2020. Over half of people coming to us with debt problems are in negative budgets, with their income unable to cover essential bills like housing, food and heating. We helped more people with homelessness advice than any other time in the last 7 years.

This was the year when the cost-of-living crisis really hit, with 2 huge increases in energy prices, high inflation and rising interest rates. And it isn’t an equal crisis — more than 60% of the people we help with crisis support are disabled or have long term health conditions.