Katie Chappell, head of fund-raising at Reach, speaks on how changes to employer's National Insurance contributions will impact the Haverhill-based charity.

Suffolk News

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00:00£12,000. That's how much more Havehill-based charity Reach will have to pay from next month

00:06when the government's changes to employers' national insurance contributions come into

00:10effect. In January alone, the charity saw a 33% increase over previous years in the

00:16number of people receiving food parcels. Now, they'll have to meet that need with less money.

00:22It was a shock to all of us. I think, as a charity, we hoped and somewhat expected not

00:28to fall into the category of having to suddenly pay extra national insurance contributions, so

00:34it was a shock to us. It's tough anyway, being a charity right now. We are grateful for every

00:40single penny we get, but it is hard to get every single penny. To have an additional bill slapped

00:48on top now of an additional £12,000 we have to find per year, for me, as head of fundraising,

00:56it's not great. It's tough. Apart from food parcels, a significant number of which go to

01:03children, Reach also helps many on the verge of falling into poverty. An extra £12,000 bill

01:09will only put extra pressure on its ability to not only deal with emergencies, but also prevention.

01:17I would say, at the moment, we have to work really hard just to stand still.

01:22We have nine people, for example, on a waiting list for help with debt. There is a lot of need

01:28out there. We are having to work really hard to meet that need. We don't want to reduce our core

01:35service in any way. That would be detrimental to the people that we're helping. I suppose,

01:39if things got really bad, we might have to look at reducing our service slightly.

01:45It would mean that there's a lot of people out there who, well, who would just be

01:52finding life incredibly tough without our help.

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