David Hilferty on the need for political action needed to deal with the debt crisis
“April cruel day”, “awful April... just some of the names given to the 1st of April this year as rent, council tax, energy, broadband and phone bills all hiked on the same day.
The devastating relentlessness of increase after increase – where basic everyday living costs like council tax, energy, rent are all increasing – mean the essentials are so out of reach for many people.
Like many charity folks, I was invited to comment on the impact on people across Scotland. A few minutes into one radio interview, and we get to the inevitable question: “what can people do?”
Framing that in terms of individual choices misses the point. It risks perpetuating blame on the choices that individuals or households can make, when these choices are increasingly impossible.
For us, though, that fails to do justice to the reality of what people are facing – to what we’re seeing first hand across the Citizens Advice network in Scotland.
Where people have made every cutback, explored every option – and still they’re in a position where they cannot afford the essentials.
Because we’re dealing with problems of such scale that the solutions lie in the decisions and choices of governments and regulators, rather than the choices of people.
A challenge we hold ourselves to is not only to highlight problems, but to be clear on solutions.
And two solutions immediately come to mind.
Just last month, we learned of planned cuts to disability benefits.
People are scared and uncertain about what this might mean, and our advisers are bracing for the impact of yet another wave of welfare reform.
As one CAB colleague relayed to me in the aftermath of the spring statement: “I just don’t know if I can do this again”.
For us, the proposed changes are incomprehensible. That is a choice, and one that must be reversed.
On energy, again, we see real harm. Average energy debt for people presenting across the CAB network is £2,500.
And let’s be clear, we’re talking about debt that is accumulated just to live – just to heat your home and keep the lights on.
So, we want to see a debt write-off scheme – one that is accessible, extensive and not bound up in layers of administration.
When debt is unavoidable and intractable, that’s a sure sign that the problem is rooted within markets rather than people.
That, too, is a choice. And that needs to change.
All of this is not to strike a note of hopelessness.
People should know support is available. Last year the Citizens Advice network in Scotland put around £160 million back into communities. Advice that changes lives.
And what we do is about much more than putting money in people’s pockets.
I was speaking recently to a colleague in our Extra Help Unit who after multiple conversations supporting someone, the person said: “thank you – I’ll be able to sleep tonight”.
That’s the difference we make.
But alongside that, we need real change – these are problems entrenched in the social security system, in energy markets – that are failing to function in a way that works for people.
There’s no getting away from the fact that we urgently need government and regulators to take bolder, swifter action – and ask themselves: “what better choices do we have before us?”
David Hilferty is director of impact at Citizens Advice Scotland.
This column was first published in the Herald www.theherald.co.uk
