| £11.4million and rising |
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| Written by Kayleigh Mcleod | ||||||
 EAST Kilbride is in the grip of a spiralling debt crisis totalling more than £11million as people struggle to cope with the aftermath of the recession.And the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in East Kilbride says it has been flooded this month with new clients “drowning in a tidal wave of debt”. As the number of unemployed Scots reaches 200,000 – the highest since 1997 – CAB manager Michelle Campbell says the economic fall-out of unemployment is affecting the people of East Kilbride. Michelle, who has worked at the CAB in East Kilbride for 12 years, said: “Since January 5, more than 120 new clients have come through the door. The 705 active cases running in this office totals £11.4 million of debt.” Despite the announcement this week that the recession is officially over, the EK CAB office is still experiencing a steady stream of people and have had to extend their opening hours to include a Thursday evening and a Saturday morning to accommodate all of those in need of advice and assistance. Even with these extra appointments and the thirty CAB volunteers on hand to help, long periods of waiting aren’t becoming more commonplace at the town centre office. January, historically a busy month for the CAB after the cost of Christmas has finally been tallied up, has reached unprecedented levels according to Michelle. She said: “In our first week in January we were already assisting people to begin the process of bankruptcy through the low income low asset route. In that week we helped clients to complete five debtors petitions, something which we normally wouldnt see until the end of January at least.” In the first three weeks of 2010, CAB has been faced with 456 new issues and a whopping 275 of those enquiries were centred on debt. Problems of East Kilbride locals ranged from keeping up mortgage payments, paying council tax and overwhelmingly, how to pay off credit, store and charge cards. Michelle said: “One of the issues for this area is that East Kilbride has always been perceived as quite an affluent area, therefore credit was maybe more available to people, so you would expect us to deal with higher levels when people get into financial difficulty.” The unwelcome January fuel bills will be coming through the letter box this week and are set to be more of a burden than usual due to the combination of the coldest weather in decades and the recession. CAB has urged the public not to panic over ‘nightmare’ fuel bills. Michelle said: “The important thing is that people shouldn’t panic when the bills come through. “We’ve seen in the past that many people are tempted either to ignore the bills altogether – which means you run up late payment charges – or to pay them using credit cards or a bank overdraft, which just runs up further debt. Neither of these steps is the right solution.” A solution is to seek help and this can be done at the Olympia Way CAB where free, confidential and impartial advice is given. East Kilbride CAB also run an outreach service for anyone who needs money advice, by appointment only. Sessions run at Ballerup nursery and Greenhills library on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For more information visit the Citizens Advice Bureau website at www.cablanarkshire.org.uk or call 01355 263698.
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