Citizens Voice

The Citizens Voice

Our main focus the last 3 months has been the Cost of Living Crisis, and addressing scams awareness. Several staff and the National Power Grid energy team have all participated in multiple live and recorded pieces on:

  • Look North
  • ITV Calendar
  • Radio Humberside
  • Good Morning Britain

Key messages on the need to increase benefits in line with inflation

  • People on benefits are already struggling to keep up with living costs. If benefits don’t rise with inflation, it will be another huge blow, making it harder for them to stay afloat
  • Backtracking on promises made about support is going to cause huge amounts of worry to people, when they need certainty they can keep the lights and the heating on.
  • Cutting back on bill support creates a cliff edge in April that needs to be addressed.

What are we calling for now?

  • We must see benefits keep in line with living costs. The government should commit to supporting people on the lowest incomes by increasing rates in line with inflation rather than earnings – anything less would blow a hole in people’s finances.
  • Clear guidance on how the government plans to support people from April 2023. In particular, we’re worried about people on benefits but also those for whom a rise in annual energy prices to £4K+ would be absolutely disastrous
  • It’s essentially that any long-term measures address the need to help people make their homes more energy efficient
  • The cessation of no fault evictions during the Cost of Living crisis.
  • Finally, no one should be chased for a debt they can’t pay or force people onto a prepayment meter if they can’t cover their bills. We’d like to see a winter ban on energy companies using this practice.

Cost of Living Data

CitA update their national data and dashboards in relation to Cost of Living at this link https://public.flourish.studio/story/1634399/?full which is updated monthly.

You can also sign up to their monthly briefings from the link above.

Some of the data from this dashboard, plus our own local dashboard is now used by us in our regular briefings to partners and stakeholders.