Debt is a frightening spectre, and not just for those on low incomes. Whether it be rent, mortgages, the threat of redundancy or the cost of child and elderly care, it sometimes seems as if the debt threat sits next to you like an unexploded bomb.

The unexpectedness of the Covid-19 pandemic last year went on to tip many people’s bank balance into the red, with millions of employees furloughed and in many cases having no job to return to as the country gradually reopened.

Debt advice has perhaps never been so important – and it almost always helps receiving guidance from someone who has been in your predicament before.

The manager of the Colchester Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Debt Centre, then, would be a good starting point for anyone whose finances are in a precarious state.

Ten years on from having to seek debt counselling herself, Paula Goddard now advises people on how to avoid falling into the same predicament which saw her rack up debts of nearly £10,000 in 2011.

But as with many cases today, Mrs Goddard’s situation was by no means caused by profligacy or carelessness.

Both she and her husband, Steve, were made redundant while she was on maternity leave; with income on the slide and bills mounting, the financial security the two had previously enjoyed had evaporated.

“We were both made redundant when I was on maternity leave with my son in 2011,” Mrs Goddard said.

“We were both contractors in an organisation, and they decided to take everything in-house – so we were made redundant.

“What had been manageable became out of control.

“We both had debt from previous abusive relationships, and after 18 months we approached CAP in June 2013.”

Gazette: Paula Goddard, who sought advice after falling victim to financial struggles in 2011

Severe changes in circumstances, such as Covid-19, have left thousands of others in a similar predicament over the past year and a half, as Mrs Goddard explains.

“In many cases we’ve seen, people have had to take time off work during the pandemic because they were clinically vulnerable,” she says.

“It also affected them having children at home during the pandemic, because having to home-school often meant an increase in utility bills.”

Even though debt is often caused by circumstances outside people’s control, it is nonetheless a predicament people are very unwilling to share, or even seek help for.

The Covid-19 lockdown not only pushed people into debt, but it equally made it much harder for people to seek debt advice; telephoning the debt centre to tell them you have financial issues is far more of a stumbling block than people would expect.

“Generally, we are a face-to-face service because people struggle with picking up the phone,” Mrs Goddard explains.

“But we have not been able to offer our help in the normal way, and that has a knock-on effect with how people approach us,” she said.

The ways in which people fall into debt have also changed over the past decade – in the early 2010s, the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2007 was a huge driver for people seeking debt counselling.

But increasingly, Mrs Goddard has seen the increasing cost of living become the main reason behind people seeking financial advice.

“Initially, people were coming to us with credit debt,” she explains.

“But over the last three to four years, more and more people are struggling with council tax, utilities, and rent – a lot of that is due to changes in circumstances.

“Our client base now ranges very widely from those who are on low incomes, to families where both parents are working.”

So, how does Colchester CAP Debt Centre help people to alleviate their financial pressures?

Put simply, it offers debt advice from experts, free of charge, in many cases meeting clients in their homes before Covid restrictions were enforced.

Much of their work is funded by churches and local businesses, which allows them to take in six new clients each month; but that’s not the extent of their efforts.

“We also have life skills courses which we run around the town,” Mrs Goddard said.

“That’s where we help people with understanding how to budget so that they can go debt free.”

As for Mrs Goddard’s own story, she and her husband received a phone call on Christmas Eve of 2015 to tell them they were debt-free – a year and a half after they had initially approached Colchester CAP Centre seeking advice.

With Mrs Goddard now providing the same advice she received as Colchester CAP Debt Centre helped her climb out of debt, her counsel is, surely, as sound as a dollar.