Make a donation to help Citizens Advice East Herts during cost-of-living crisis
Head of communications and fundraising Esther McWatters on how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting Citizens Advice East Herts and what you can do to help
The cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone and, unfortunately, it’s also affecting the charity sector. Charity Excellence reports that there was a £1 billion reduction in charity funding from the public sector in 2023 and that this is ongoing.
It surveyed charities and 86% reported they will be worse off, of which nearly a third (32%) face significant financial challenges and another third (34%) have a serious cash flow problem or have or may have to consider reducing or closing services, making staff redundant, merging or closing their charity.
What many people don’t realise is that Citizens Advice East Herts is a charity. We are part of the wider Citizens Advice network, but don’t receive any funding from them.
Our free advice service is funded by a mixture of grants from East Herts Council, applications to trusts and foundations, community fundraising and other donations.
And the cuts which are affecting so many charities are also affecting us. The cost-of-living crisis means funding is now much harder to come by at the same time as it costs us more to operate.
While the local council is supportive of our work, our funding from them has reduced by 56% (including inflation) over the last five years.
We’ve been really careful to keep down costs so we can help as many people as possible. That’s why we closed our South Street office as it was too expensive for us to keep it open. But, sadly, we are having to make reductions to our advice service.
Our phone lines are now closed every Friday. If you need help, you can call our message line Monday to Thursday and leave a message. Our advisers will call you back 10am-4pm Monday to Thursday.
Throughout the year, we’re going to be running fundraising campaigns and there will be lots of opportunities to get involved. In the meantime, if you want to support our work please consider making a donation at www.justgiving.com/citizensadvice-eastherts.
If you need advice, the quickest way is to call our message line on 01920 459944 Monday to Thursday or visit www.citizensadviceeastherts.org.uk for our advice options. Due to funding cuts, our offices are now closed on a Friday.
If you don’t have a phone or email or need extra support, the Citizens Advice Contact Centre, at Bishop’s Stortford Methodist Church in South Street, is open every Tuesday from 11am to 1pm.
