Briefing: cost of living, health and advice
Information from the Office for National Statistics shows that:
- People finding it difficult to pay their energy bills experienced moderate to severe depression nearly three times more often than people who found it easy to pay
- People who found it difficult to pay their rent or mortgage experienced moderate to severe depression nearly twice as much as people who found it easy to pay
- Around 1 in 3 people with moderate to severe depression had had to borrow more money or use more credit than usual in the last month – only 1 in 6 people with no symptoms had had to do this
Steve Triner, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Sutton, made a presentation at our recent AGM on the health impacts of the cost of living crisis, which we’ve now made available as a briefing.
Steve highlighted the many factors which have caused the current crisis:
- The end of the Universal Credit uplift
- The failure of benefits to cover many private rents
- Rising energy costs
- Rising costs of housing, fuel and food
- The previous benefits freeze from 2015 to 2020
- Jobs based in Sutton are often low paid
- Benefit support for childcare costs has been frozen since 2005
- People on low incomes often increased their debts during the pandemic
The crisis has serious results for physical and mental health:
- Malnutrition and illness due to cold homes
- People in debt are more likely to be in poor health, especially poor mental health
- Over 1 in 5 people who attempt suicide are in problem debt
Advice services can help:
- Many people are entitled to higher benefit levels - £15 billion goes unclaimed
- Debt Relief Orders put repayments on hold for a year
Use of advice services has positive health outcomes, including less stress, better sleep, better use of medication, giving up smoking, eating well and getting exercise.
- 4 out of 10 Citizens Advice Sutton clients said their physical health improved after getting advice
- 6 out of ten clients said their mental health improved
Barriers to seeking advice include embarrassment about debt or claiming benefits
- These issues may be worse for people with mental health problems.
- Men are less likely to seek help with debt, though 3 out of 4 suicides are men
It’s crucial for advice services, health services and other local bodies to work together to address these issues.