A DEBT-advice service set up to alleviate hardship in the parish of Jarrow and Simonside after the Covid pandemic has helped people to manage more than £1 million of debt so far.
Supported by the diocese of Durham and Communities Together Durham — a partnership of churches, charities, and local authorities — the service, Money Advice South Tyneside, is now an independent charity. The South Tyneside community is one of the most deprived in England.
The Rector, the Revd Lesley Jones, arrived in 2020 and noticed how people were struggling financially. “We were organising food and doing everything else we could, but it became clear that the cushion people normally have — if they have any savings at all — had gone, and debts…