A community advice service in Bristol is having to recruit and train an increasing number of volunteers in order to meet the surging demand for its services.
The Boost is a multi-agency partnership between Wellspring Settlement, West of England Works, Talking Money and CHAS housing advice service, running bi-weekly drop in sessions at the Wellspring Settlement in Barton Hill.
It offers support to people who are struggling with bills, experiencing benefit sanctions or refusal of PIP payments as well as housing issues and helping people with finding work and starting their own businesses.
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Lisa Dora, who coordinates and manages Boost, said that the support provided by volunteers is becoming more important as the need grows for the service they offer.
Often the work is time-consuming and they will need to dedicate a significant amount of time to each person, as people may arrive asking for help with one particular bill but as they get into a more in depth conversation, they discover that there are many more issues lurking beneath the surface.
Lisa said: “Often people come in with a bill they can’t pay but usually there are a whole host of other things beyond that issue a person presents.
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“Part of the conversation within Boost is not just focusing on the crisis, our role is also about looking at other things that might have caused the crisis to occur in the first place.
“Like looking at benefit entitlement and if they are getting all the benefits they are entitled to or budgeting and if they are paying more for things than they need to.
“Some people are paying more for things then they need to but they don’t have the resources to address that or to get a cheaper deal elsewhere but some people just don’t have enough money to pay bills and feed their children.”
Although energy debt has become a massive issue recently, Lisa said the issues that many people are facing go back to 2010 when the ongoing austerity measures were introduced.
She added: “Going back to 2010 and austerity, people have never been able to recover from that and it feels like one thing after another.
“In terms of people being able to build resilience or put a little bit of money aside or look to wider aspirations of what they want to achieve, there just doesn't seem to be the opportunity for people to do that.”
According to government data, the number of people claiming Universal Credit more than doubled during the start of the pandemic in March 2020, rising above the unemployment rate.
Other than unemployment, campaigners say more people are on Universal Credit now as a result of wages declining in real terms, meaning that an increasing number of people in work do not earn enough to cover their basic living expenses.
Hari Ramakrishnan, who also works at Boost and is employed by Talking Money, found that during the pandemic people were having to use services and access the benefit system for the first time.
“When we were coming out of the first lockdowns we found there were people who, pre-Covid, never had to navigate the benefit system.
“The stigma around benefits and debt means that they may not have come to us as soon as they should have because they felt ashamed and in those couple of months where they were hoping they would find a job, the situation could have gotten worse.
“For some people their issues may be temporary, for example if someone had a change in circumstances or a relationship breakdown or a worsening of their health.
“In those cases, it’s trying to do what you can in the meantime until their Universal Credit or PIP application is successful.
“Some people are perpetually stuck in the working poor, while others are in a crisis right now.”
Although unemployment is said to now be above the levels we had seen pre-pandemic, the latest data demonstrates that as of November 2021, wages fell in real terms for the first time in a year, due to the rising cost of living.
Rising energy prices
The boost service has seen an increase in people coming to access services with energy debt, which they expect to increase when the prices go up again in April.
They are recruiting volunteers who receive training that enables them to not only to support staff delivering the drop in service but also providing them with the necessary skills to be able to help friends and neighbours who need support around budgeting or benefit entitlements.
Claudia, who originally came to Boost for support with her Home Choice application, has been volunteering for the service since June 2021.
She said: “It’s very nice to be here, I learned a lot of things, I like speaking to people and I like helping people, I feel very happy to help people.
“My second child has complex needs so I am a full-time mother and a carer so for me this kind of work is very nice because sometimes I need to do something more for myself, it’s great to be here.”
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at Boost, please contact Wellspring Settlement and ask for Lisa or Hari.
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