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Need Help? Why the Helpline Works.

8th April 2021

If you follow us on social media or are a regular visitor to our website, you may well have seen us promoting the Trussell Trust’s 08082 082138 helpline number. Why do we like this helpline so much? Well, here’s a little background info and some really good reasons why.

The helpline launched in April 2020 with the Trussell Trust working in partnership with Citizens Advice in England and Wales to provide a service helping people in crisis. From April 2020 to February this year, the helpline answered 43,000 calls and issued over 26,000 foodbank vouchers. If a caller isn’t issued with a foodbank voucher, however, this does not mean they haven’t been helped in other ways.

What happens when you make a call?

Every call is answered by a Citizens Advice Advisor. These trained advisors take the time to fully explore each caller’s circumstances, completing a benefit check and providing advice to maximise their income. The adviser will also explore what other advice is needed and will signpost the caller for further support, considering the local and national options. Remarkably, for those callers where the advisers have been able to identify possible financial gains, this has led to an average annual income increase of £2,900. All of this means the adviser can make a fair assessment of the caller’s need for emergency food and, where appropriate, they will issue a food voucher using our e-referral system.

Demand for the service is high, but we know from Trussell Trust feedback that the helpline is reaching many people who haven’t previously accessed support. A recent survey showed that 1 in 2 callers had never received emergency food aid before; and only 1 in 10 have been supported by Citizens Advice prior to calling.

This partnership between the Trussell Trust and Citizens Advice is reaching and actively helping more and more people who are experiencing hardship and crisis. Because of this ongoing impact, the partnership has been given a new name: ‘Help through Hardship’. Calls to the helpline will be answered by members of the Help through Hardship team and this team is in fact being expanded, ensuring that from April, even more calls can be answered.

Ultimately, helplines such as this shouldn’t need to exist. Neither should foodbanks. If you’d like to join the Trussell Trust’s campaign for a #HungerFreeFuture, you can find out more on their website here.

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