More York families struggle with debt (From York Press) - The Press in York
More York families struggle with debt
3:59pm Friday 8th June 2012 in News 
SQUEEZED households in York are struggling to make ends meet, according to new figures from a leading debt advice charity.
Figures from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) show that York residents contacting the charity for help last year were an average of £11 short of the amount needed to cover their basic living expenses, much less debt repayments, each month. The charity is warning that many are at risk of falling into serious debt.
A total of 792 people in the York area contacted the CCCS helpline in 2011 for advice on dealing with credit cards, store cards, payday loans and other kinds of unsecured debt. On average they owed £18,162 - above the UK average of £17,983.
The city’s Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) said the figures backed up their experiences.
CAB debt worker Kevin Butler said: “We have as high a demand now as we have ever had and we do all we can to help. What we have found is that until a few years ago the typical client was someone on a low income, someone not working or a single person with children. But for the last couple of years the people coming in have gone up the social scale. We now see more professionals, couples that are both working with families. People who have jobs are really struggling.
“In the vast majority of cases it’s because of a change in circumstances but there’s a sizeable minority of people who may be don’t work as many hours or have had cuts in overtime and that coupled with the rise in living costs have now tipped them over the edge.”
Delroy Corinaldi, CCCS director of external affairs, said: "Households in York are under relentless pressure from a combination of low wage growth and the rising cost of living. As the financial squeeze continues to tighten, many more people in York are at risk of falling into serious debt.
“FThe most important step you can take is to seek free advice as soon as you start to fall behind."
CCCS provides free and confidential debt advice at 0800 138 1111 and anonymous online debt counselling tool, CCCS Debt Remedy, at www.cccs.co.uk To contact York CAB call 08444 111444, visit www.adviceguide.org.uk or visit drop in sessions at Blossom Street on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9.30am - midday.
Salpingidis feels Greece soul power - UEFA
Having come off the bench to score the equaliser in their 1-1 Group A draw against co-hosts Poland, Dimitris Salpingidis saluted his ten-man Greece side's resilience, while team-mate Kostas Katsouranis was sufficiently reassured by their second-half showing to predict that the Greeks would make it through the UEFA EURO 2012 group stage.
Dimitris Salpingidis, Greece forward
We are not satisfied, because the second half of the match was a completely different game. We had a lot of bad moments in the first half and a lot of bad luck; however, during the second half we did our best, we put our soul into it. The moment we missed the penalty proves exactly what I said, we could have won. Unfortunately, we got a draw, one point, and we'll carry on. Both of our upcoming games are difficult, Russia and against the Czech Republic. We will try to do our best and if we manage to qualify, we will all be very happy.
Were we disappointing in the first half? This happens a lot in football, and it happened to our team today. However, what you have to do is to never give up trying. Even if you can't play as you have planned, you have to try hard, and that's exactly what we all did.
Kostas Katsouranis, Greece midfielder
The first 20 minutes were a bad start for us: the Polish started the match very aggressively. Though we knew that they are very strong down the right, that's where they created most of the trouble for us, and I think we're all responsible for that, since we did not manage to keep them away from that flank, as we had planned. They missed chances, which was a warning for us, but we finally conceded a goal. I’m not saying that it is the left-back's [José Holebas] fault; we know that we're all responsible, since we did not perform well in defence on that wing. However we came around after that. We played very well, and I believe we deserved to win for the remaining 70 minutes. I think we will qualify - we've got what it takes.
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