Thanks to the generosity of readers, we have already raised £350,000 in the week since our 2022 appeal was launched. This year, we are supporting two organisations that are experts at reaching deep within the communities they serve. Donations will provide urgently needed funds to frontline services that increasing numbers of people across the UK desperately need. Food, clothing and warm banks, and debt and housing advice, are all in demand as never before, as living standards fall faster and harder than in more than 60 years.
Our chosen charities, Locality and Citizens Advice, support families and individuals in difficulties in complementary ways. Locality is an umbrella organisation for grassroots and community groups. It will distribute your contributions as grants to some of the most economically deprived neighbourhoods in the UK (working with partners in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to make this a nationwide effort). As well as practical initiatives such as food banks, these smaller local charities focus on issues including loneliness and wellbeing, and run activities for vulnerable groups including older people and children and teenagers growing up in poverty.
Citizens Advice is experiencing unprecedented levels of need for the help it offers. This includes guidance to people struggling with debt, housing or benefits issues, and increasingly those in need of urgent assistance – such as vouchers for energy or food, or support with mental illness (for example, updating benefit claims). As more and more contact with public services and other agencies has moved online, or to call centres, Citizens Advice centres are among the few remaining places where people in trouble can seek support face to face. Staff describe clients queueing for hours and arriving with bags full of bills. With no end in sight for the energy and food price inflation that makes daily life so hard, and with interest rates expected to rise further next year, the new year is more likely to bring further hardship than relief.
We know that many of our readers are horrified at the kinds of needs that the voluntary sector is expected to meet. But with public services including the NHS chronically overstretched, and council budgets decimated by austerity, the state is no longer capable of supporting many of those even in acute need – such as children – who have no capacity to support themselves. In areas such as housing, the current crisis is the consequence of years of neglect. Had the government invested in insulation, and passed laws giving tenants more protection, the number of households in crisis due to unaffordable bills, rents or poor maintenance (leading to problems including mould, and tragedies such as the death of Awaab Ishak) would be smaller.
In previous years, our readers’ generosity has surpassed expectations – since 2015, you have contributed £10m to good causes. Together, we have been able to back projects ranging from nature conservation in Madagascar to mental health support for young people during the pandemic. Many people’s finances are stretched at the moment, as inflation outstrips wage growth, particularly in the public sector – but research shows that people with less money are typically more generous in their charitable giving than those on the highest incomes. Please make a donation if you can – either online, or over the phone on 0151 284 1126. In our telethon on Saturday 17 December, some of our best-known journalists will be waiting to take your calls.
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