Poor Brits are “already drowning” and demand for crisis help like food banks has hit an “all time record” - BEFORE April’s energy bills rise.
Citizens Advice Head of Policy Morgan Wild said Chancellor Rishi Sunak ’s £350 of help - £200 of which must be paid back - has not “grasped the challenge” and he will need to come back with more help for the poorest “over the coming months”.
Mr Wild told MPs on the Commons Work and Pensions Committee: “Over the past month Citizens Advice has seen a record demand since the pandemic began of people coming to us for advice.
“We’re seeing all time records for crisis support - referrals for food banks and other charitable support - and we’re seeing record numbers for fuel debts.”
Giving evidence to MPs, the Trussell Trust food bank charity blasted extra help through councils as a “postcode lottery” and warned many of its users don’t know it exists.
And the IFS think tank warned families on benefits will see a real-terms cut when rates are raised by only 3.1% - £10.07 a month for Universal Credit - in April.
IFS Deputy Director Robert Joyce suggested benefit rises should be calculated on a more recent February inflation figure, not the figure from last September as is the case now.
Yet Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said no further support is currently planned and said it was up to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, not her.
She said: “It’s the Chancellor who put together that £9billion package on energy. I think that’s pretty substantial.”
Asked if the government thought the package was enough, Ms Coffey - a member of the Cabinet - said: “I think they think the £9bn, the Chancellor thinks £9bn of support to people in the country is a substantial element.”
She added: “There’s already been a significant increase into the level of support, I’m not aware any more plans are there. That’s not my decision.”
Ms Coffey also defended the below-inflation Universal Credit rise from April 11 and insisted she had delivered in her role.
“I don’t feel I’m in an impossible position,” she said.
“I put forward what I thought was sensible in line with inflation on our usual index, recognising an aspect of consistency - sometimes that will be up, sometimes that will be down.”
Ms Coffey said poor people who aren’t eligible for a £150 council tax discount in April can draw on a £144m fund to be given out through councils.
She added the separate Household Support Fund - also run by councils - is already open.
But Citizens Advice chief Mr Wild said: “In lots of situations one advisor has told me it’s like a plaster on a gaping wound.
“People who are in serious financial shortfalls, it helps them for a few weeks, but there’s little to address the fundamental issue.”
The IFS’s Mr Joyce added council support should be for “edge cases”, not “poor substitutes for creating national policy”.
Mr Wild said: “People on low incomes are seeing an incredibly high rise in prices and no commensurate increase in their incomes.
“Over the past month Citizens Advice has seen a record demand since the pandemic began of people coming to us for advice.
“We’re seeing all time records for crisis support - referrals for food banks and other charitable support - and we’re seeing record numbers for fuel debts.
“So we are already at a very elevated level of financial stress for the people coming to us.
“That’s in January 2022, before the significant increase in energy prices comes down the line in April - an average of £693 for the average household which many families will not be able to bear.”
Mr Wild said Rishi Sunak’s help was a “welcome start” but added: “We really think that challenge hasn’t been grasped properly.
“And the government is going to have to come back over the coming months to help households who are, at this baseline, already drowning and face really significant difficulties if they don’t have further measures to protect them against energy costs.”
Rory Weal of the Trussell Trust said people are in “very deep poverty” and “already having to make these choices between heating and eating”.
He told MPs: “December 2021 is looking like being one fo the busiest months we have on record as an organisation.”
There are no final numbers yet but “there are real signs of an acceleration of need” after the £20-a-week Universal Credit cut in October, he said.
Meanwhile Ms Coffey revealed she has complained to her own energy supplier that her household bill is too high. Her firm rose her direct debit, “anticipating perhaps” the £693-a-year rise in April.
And she accused energy suppliers of using poor rate-payers “As their cash flow”.
Ms Coffey, who earns £149,437 as an MP and Cabinet minister, told MPs on the Commons Work and Pensions Committee: “I don’t pretend in any way to be poor, I’m not trying to suggest that at all.
“But I did notice very significantly my utility suppliers all of a sudden increased my standing order, anticipating perhaps rises. I’ve had to go back and get them to bring back down my standing order because it’s not in line with my bills.”
Suggesting poor benefit claimants could do the same, she said: “People can ask for that to be reviewed and they can go to Ofgem if they want to make a complaint.
“To some extent I think some of the energy suppliers started using bill-payers as their cash flow.”
But she accepted the advice might not work for everyone, saying: “I’m not going to pretend I can read everybody’s meter.”
Stephen Timms, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “The lack of detail that the Secretary of State was able to give us on what the Government is doing to support the many people currently struggling to get by was hugely disappointing.”
