NEW research published by Citizens Advice Cornwall has found that 40,000 people living in Cornwall have more money going out than coming in every month.

The trend of negative budgets - where people’s expenditure on basic bills like energy, housing and food exceeds their income - is a growing problem in the county. 

As falling living standards continue to push people’s finances to the brink, the new analysis from Citizens Advice Cornwall found energy costs and housing are the key costs swallowing up people’s income, pushing many into the red. This means more and more people in this situation are likely to fall further into a spiral of debt. 

Citizens Advice Cornwall chief executive, Jon Berg, said: “What was once a rarity for Citizens Advice services in Cornwall  - seeing people come to us in a negative budget - has sadly now become the new normal for our advisers.  

“Getting people out of the red and into the black is what we excel in. But we can’t tackle a challenge of this scale alone.  

“People are living on empty, cutting back their spending to unsafe levels just to get by. This cannot continue.  

“With living standards falling, we need politicians from all sides in Cornwall to get serious about addressing the issue head on.” 

With a general election looming, Citizens Advice Cornwall’s research also found more than half of voters in all Cornish constituencies said the cost of living, or living standards, was one of the most important issues in determining how they will vote while more than three-quarters said that negative budgets are an important issue. 

According to the research nearly 5,000 residents in South East Cornwall are currently operating on a negative budget, with the ‘negative budget rate’ - the percentage of people in the constituency living on a negative monthly income - sitting at 5.38 per cent.  

Citizens Advice Cornwall’s research also found that more than 55 per cent of residents in South East Cornwall said that the cost of living or living standards was one of the most important issues in determining how they will vote, with more than 80 per cent arguing that negative budgets are an important issue.