CITIZENS Advice Test Valley has reported an increase in the number of people using its services, according to data presented at its annual general meeting.

At the charity’s AGM, which was held on Wednesday, October 25, it was revealed that the organisation had seen 4,290 people about 11,419 issues in the year to March 2023.

The organisation, which has offices in Romsey town centre and the Chantry Centre in Andover, as well as outreaches in Whitchurch and the Romsey and Andover foodbanks, has gained almost £350,000 for clients in unclaimed benefits or by helping them have debts written off.

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However, it was reported at the AGM that the current year is not seeing any let-up in the number of clients and the multiple issues they typically bring. So far, it has seen a nearly 30 per cent increase in demand for its services over the same period in the previous year, itself one of record demand. 

Most clients are helped via email or phone but many also come into the offices for face-to-face meetings with advisers.

Chair Stephen Bowden, who led the AGM, said that the cost-of-living crisis is “causing daily chaos in people’s lives".

He continued: “We live in a beautiful and relatively prosperous part of the country [but] many residents have continued to experience extreme difficulty in dealing with the pressures that massive increases in accommodation costs and food and fuel prices have heaped upon them." 

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Citizens Advice Test Valley is a registered charity, formed in 2014 when the previously separate Romsey and Andover offices came together, whose remit is to provide a first-class free advocacy and advice service to the residents of Test Valley. Helping the people of Test Valley overcome their everyday problems of debt, housing issues, employment rights and family breakdown. 

It does so with the encouragement and substantial financial backing, by way of discretionary grant funding, of Test Valley Borough Council.

More information about Citizens Advice Test Valley can be found by visiting its website or calling 0808 812 6681.