UNION activists and debt campaigners staged a protest outside government departments today to call for increased funding for debt advice.

Unite said the demonstration outside the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions in London aims to highlight how communities remain in the “grip” of a cost-of-living emergency.

The union has written to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to call on the Treasury to increase and expand funding of debt advice.

In the letter, Unite national officer Alan Scott warned of a “petrifying paradox for thousands upon thousands of families in the UK. 

“As more plunge into desperate debt, the services to help them are falling dramatically.”

He added: “The evidence is compelling, there is an urgent need for HM Treasury to increase and extend the levy on identifiable businesses which are compelled to fund debt advice services.”

In the year to January 2023, Citizens Advice has reported an 88 per cent increase in debt assessments while StepChange debt charity workers are facing an estimated 200 job losses.

Amy Taylor, who chairs Greater Manchester Money Advice Group, said: “As a front-line debt adviser, I’m seeing a huge increase in demand for our help. 

“People are coming to us in desperate situations, with more complex problems.

“Debt advice services make all the difference. We stop evictions, help to write off debts, find extra benefits and grants, and so much more.

“The work we do changes lives, but in the current crisis we’re badly underfunded and there’s just not enough of us. Government needs to act right now. 

“We know the money is there to properly fund debt advice services, and government must make businesses pay their fair share to fix the debt crisis they’ve profited from.”

The Treasury was approached for comment.