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Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, responding to the chancellor's Spring Statement

"This government says it wants to drive up living standards and fight child poverty, but you can't do that while taking a wrecking ball to the support people rely on.

“We know people are already struggling. Many really are facing an impossible choice between basic needs, like heating or eating. This is even worse than we were expecting and just piles on the pressure for those people already living on a financial knife edge.

“These looming benefit cuts will drive even more people into poverty, not lift them up. This isn’t just a spreadsheet. We're talking about real lives, real people, real struggles.”

We give people the knowledge and confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Notes to editors:

1. Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.
2. Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. 
3. Citizens Advice helped 2.68 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2023-24. And we had 51.7 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
4. Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 19,000 trained volunteers, working at over 1,900 service outlets across England and Wales.
5. Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers. 
6. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.