There has been a surge in demand on the services of the Advice Shop in Bathgate in the wake of the pandemic, the town’s Local Area Committee has heard.
Chris Nelson of the Anti-Poverty Service said: “We are seeing a lot of people who have never been in touch regarding benefits or who have never been on benefits themselves. It is a sign of the times and the difficulties people are facing.”
Bathgate ward is the second highest in the county in terms of the number of people the service has been helping and between April and mid October raised an extra £2.25m in benefits for customers.
From March 23 to November 6, the Bathgate Partnership Centre payments office paid out 1712 Crisis Grant payments representing £132,667.
Mr Nelson said: “We are both a proactive and reactives service and we have worked hard to develop and maintain a full service throughout and we have maintained our individual campaigns.”
