Citizens Advice gives crisis support every 30 seconds as bill rises loom
The charity has helped more than 51,000 people with crisis support so far this year.
Renters, disabled people and single parents are among those most likely to seek support.
The money owed by people seeking help with debt is now at record levels.
Citizens Advice calls on the government to build on action taken so far and throw households in crisis “a lifeline”.
Ahead of key bills including council tax and water rising from April, cost-of-living pressures continue to hold households in a vice-like grip, pushing them deeper into debt, Citizens Advice warns.
New analysis from the charity reveals it has supported more than 51,000 people, the equivalent of one person every 30 seconds, with crisis support (such as a foodbank referral or charitable grant) so far this year.
When broader cost-of-living issues like energy bills and council tax arrears are included, the number of people seeking help swells to a staggering 175,000.
Citizens Advice is warning the sobering figures demonstrate how many household budgets have already gone beyond breaking point and unable to withstand financial pressures, pushing them deeper in the red.
The average amount of debt owed by people the charity sees has hit a record £9,500, up 12% on last year. On average, more than a third of this debt (42%) is arrears on essential bills, such as energy and council tax.
With global instability threatening further price shocks, and key essential bills going up in April, Citizens Advice is anticipating the number of people pushed into debt could grow further.
The charity pointed to the significant moves the government has already made to help struggling households, heralding the scrapping of the two-child benefit limit as a sea change. It says this, alongside existing measures to tackle cost-of-living pressures including action to bring down energy bills for everyone from April, is a step in the right direction.
However, for households at crisis point, Citizens Advice warns more help is needed. It’s calling for better-targeted support for people struggling most with energy bills, help with soaring rent costs and speeding up action to get people out of debt.
Nicky*: “I’m struggling more than ever now, it’s getting out of control”
Nicky* is in her 60s and lives in the South of England. After becoming a carer for her late partner and then being made redundant from her job working in a cafe, her finances deteriorated. She’s currently looking for work, but after paying bills she has less than £60 a month for groceries. She is being pushed into debt, and would rather skip meals than borrow money to pay for food. Citizens Advice has supported her to get food vouchers.
She says: “The money started running out. By the time I’d paid bills there was nothing left for food. I’m struggling more than ever now. I’ve got to the stage where people are trying to take direct debits out of my account but there isn’t the money there to have. It’s getting out of control.
“I was getting a council tax discount but I’ve fallen behind so I’m waiting to see if I get the full bill. I’m a bit worried about my phone bill. I’ve fallen behind and I’ve got a message saying for late payments they can add more on. I owe the water company quite a bit of money.
“I don’t eat a lot and I’m ill quite a lot. I owe relatives a little money but I don’t like borrowing, I’d rather starve. I try to pay my bills on time but it just doesn’t leave me enough money to eat properly. That’s all I’d ask for, just some money for food.”
Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“Our data reveals the scale of the problem facing people; households are buckling under cost-of-living pressures, and too many are reaching crisis.
“Every day our advisers see people at breaking point, with nowhere left to cut back and debts spinning out of control. Now, worrying global events look likely to bring fresh challenges to already stretched budgets.
“That is why the government must give a lifeline to the households struggling the most. This should include help with rent costs, better-targeted support with energy bills, as well as measures to tackle record breaking levels of debt.”
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Notes to editors:
Data taken from Casebook (Citizens Advice’s case management system for its advice services across England and Wales) on 16th March 2026 reflecting client cases between 1st January 2026 and 15th March 2026.
“Crisis support" is defined as people requiring a food bank referral or support with accessing charitable assistance, which includes applying for a grant or applying to receive items such as clothes or furniture. The charity helped 51,216 people with this. The number of people per minute is this total figure divided by the total number of working days in this period (51) and again by the number of working hours per day (8). This came to 1004 people per day, 126 per hour and 2.09 per minute, one person every 29 seconds. This was rounded to 30 seconds.
Of those coming to us for crisis support, we found renters (private and social tenants) made up the largest group based on living situation (28% and 51% respectively, making a combined total of 79% of the 34,316 we had housing tenure for. Disabled people made up 66% of those seeking crisis support against 34% non-disabled (we had disability status for 40,867 out of total crisis support clients). Single parents made up 28% of those seeking crisis support, almost double the number of couples with children seeking support at 13% (of the 36,206 clients we had housing type for).
“Cost-of-living” issues includes numbers of people Citizens Advice has supported with the following: homelessness, council tax arrears, personal independence payment, energy, energy debts, charitable support and food banks. As well as taking data from Casebook, data was also taken from the national consumer helpline for clients during the same period. Across both, the charity helped 174,796 people with those issues in this timeframe.
Data on Citizens Advice clients average debt levels comes from budget assessments. Advisers carry out budget assessments with debt clients to help them make a sustainable repayment plan for their debts, and this assessment includes recording income and expenditure information. In January and February 2026 advisers completed a budget assessment for 14,910 people. The trimmed mean of the total debt owed across all of these debt clients, removing the top and bottom 20% of values, is £9569.40 per person. This is higher than any month prior since records began in January 2019. When looking at the same period in 2025, the average debt per person was £8548.75 for 14,858 clients. The difference between the two is 12%.
When calculating the proportion of total debt in January and February 2026 that was from “essential bills” - included here are rent, mortgage payments, council tax, energy, water, telecoms and TV licence bills. The average proportion of total debt that these made up was 42%, equal to £3991 per person.
Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.
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Citizens Advice helped 2.71 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2024-25. And we had 44 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
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