Speaking to The Press, Fiona McCulloch said “it appears that there’s no end in sight” as rising costs continue to put pressure on households in the city.
In particular, she said rising food and housing costs had resulted in more people turning to Citizens Advice in York.
Ms McCulloch said people were continuing to find themselves in financial difficulty due to the impact of the pandemic.
She said Citizens Advice had predicted a “debt tsunami” due to increased spending during the pandemic, adding: “We’re just about keeping our heads above that debt tsunami at the moment, but it’s tough.
“My two strong debt team wrote off £2.7 million worth of debt last year between them – it’s an enormous amount.
“And in the meantime, people are still really struggling to make ends meet.”
Ms McCulloch also said the government’s recent welfare changes had “affected us quite badly” as “more people have been trying to rush to get Personal Independent Payments (PIP) made ahead of the change to the rules”.
“That’s put us under a huge amount of pressure as well to help people with PIP forms, which are incredibly complicated to fill in.”
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