Credit Crunch

Christians Against Poverty are a nationwide counselling charity which began in Bradford 13 years ago. Their headquarters are still here in Bradford but they work through centres based in local churches across the country. People with financial problems may be referred to these local centres by family doctors, social services, housing and other agencies and the majority of their clients are not church goers.

CAP's HQ in Bradford's Little Germany

When we visited CAP at their headquarters in Little Germany in July 2008 they had 72 centres but a year later this has grown to 106. However the charity thinks it's very unlikely that the increase in the number of requests for help can simply be explained by this expansion.

Stephen looks after CAP's debt counselling

Client Services Manager Stephen Roberts looks after CAP's debt counselling activities. He says he's noticed a change in the clients they are seeing: "Whereas people with mortgages were probably a much smaller percentage than the people in rented properties, that's changed. I can't give you figures but definitely we've seen a lot of people who were in higher-paid jobs and lose their jobs. We had a case last week of somebody who was on a £4000 [a month] income and is suddenly out of work and on benefits. It makes a huge difference whereas previously I guess the majority of our clients were on benefits or very low pay so I think we've seen a change in the clients who come to us rather than necessarily in the numbers."

Houses may have to be sold or repossessed

"Yes, it makes our job more difficult in the sense that we've got to think carefully about how we give advice to our clients but we always say to clients, 'We can come up with a solution if you want to work with us.' Clients may not always want the solution because the solution may involve selling the house, or allowing it to be repossessed if they are in a really poor situatio,n but at the end of the day it is a solution. The problem for a lot of people is the stress that being in debt puts on them and by moving them into a situation where that stress is less, they can handle the situation and start to rebuild their lives."

Jon works with CAP's local centres

Jon points out that there is often more to being in debt than someone's financial situation: "People who are in debt often have accompanying emotional and psychological difficulties, relationship breakdown and in the more extreme cases, attempted suicide. What we aim to do as a charity is to support them holistically as opposed to saying, 'That's the financial side of things. Off you go and work it out.' We recognise the fact that being in debt is so much more than a financial issue and that's why the advice we offer always come hand in hand with pastoral support because you can't really give one without the other, and if you do then you often end up with people understanding about the finance but saying, 'What about me? What about my life and my relationships?' The impact of debt affects those as well."