At Hull & East Riding Citizens Advice we take our commitment to ensure that the voice of our community is heard and that real change can be achieved.

We do this by recording the problems our community faces and regularly feeding our clients’ own experiences into national and local campaigns.

We work with national Citizens Advice and our own local partners and stakeholders to ensure that trends and common issues are spotted and acted upon

Recent successes include:

• Working locally with our MPs to ensure that PIP claimants get a fairer deal with travel arrangements for PIP assessments
• Working closely with both of our Local Authorities to protect vulnerable people in relation to Council Tax collection practices
• Liaising with DWP to ensure that verification processes for Universal Credit claims do not unfairly delay claim and payment dates
• Providing key information to both of our local authorities in their planning to address the current Cost of Living Crisis

Cost of Living Crisis

Unfortunately, the current Cost of Living Crisis has now started to severely impact our residents. Usage of food banks and/or other requests for charitable assistance is at an all-time high, with a bleak winter ahead for many.

Completing the move to Universal Credit: Learning from the Discovery Phase

It is Time to Stop Pre-Payment Meters – Click the link to be better informed.

We have been tracking our local data for many months and feeding this back to our local authorities, MP’s and national Citizens Advice.

Whilst it has been a success of sorts that the government has announced an uplift in benefits from April 2023, with further energy bill support for some, we are still gravely concerned that this will not be enough.

Our data shows that the Government’s support is not enough to get people through this winter.

That’s why we’re calling for (The cost of living support won’t prevent a bleak Christmas for many | by Jonny Tatam-Hall | Dec, 2022 | We are Citizens Advice):

• Further targeted support to people on prepayment meters, including via the Household Support Fund
• A ban on energy companies forcing people onto prepayment meters this winter
• Raising Cold Weather Payments to more closely match current energy costs
• Raising the Local Housing Allowance by inflation

The latest Cost of Living data can be found here https://public.flourish.studio/story/1634399/?full

In the meantime, we will continue to work with our VCSE colleagues in Hull & East Riding to help our local residents meet the challenges posed by this Cost of Living crisis.