Record demand for frontline support services as Paperweight Trust client numbers double in four years

A record number of UK Jews are seeking support for financial and debt related matters and legal difficulties, according to The Paperweight Trust, the community’s leading frontline support service.

New figures released on Wednesday 14 October to mark Challenge Poverty Week (12-18 October), a UK-wide initiative highlighting the realities of poverty and challenging the stigma around financial hardship, reveal that the number of people turning to Paperweight for help has almost doubled in four years.

At the same time, the number of people aged 40 to 55 seeking support has risen 61% in four years, from 340 in 2022 to 547 in 2026, with the age group now accounting for more than one in four of all Paperweight clients.

The rise has accelerated over the past two years, from 385 in 2024 to 445 in 2025 and 547 this year.

The charity describes the group as the “new vulnerables” – people who may previously have considered themselves financially stable, working-age households increasingly being pushed into difficulty by the cost-of-living crisis and sustained pressure on their finances.

Paperweight client Danny*, in his 40s and married with three children, had a stable job and savings before being made redundant after almost 18 years with the same company. He turned to the charity after there was not enough money in his account to pay the mortgage.

Danny said: “We were comfortable. Not rich, but we were all right. I had a decent job, my wife worked part-time, the bills were paid and we had some savings. We were the people who gave to charity. It never occurred to me that one day I might be the one needing it.”

Josh* a father of two in his early 40s said: “The moment I knew things had gone too far was when my son needed new glasses. My wife kept asking me to book the appointment and I said I hadn’t had time. That wasn’t true. I knew we would have to pay for the glasses and I didn’t know where the money would come from. Eventually I just said, ‘I can’t pay for them.’ Can you imagine? My son needed glasses and I couldn’t afford them. As a father, you should be able to provide something as basic as that for your child.”

Miriam* in her early 50s, considered herself financially secure until her divorce coincided with her mother becoming seriously ill. She reduced her working hours to care for her mother and found herself managing on a reduced single income as household costs rose, eventually exhausting her savings.

She says: “I’ve always been careful with money, so I think that made it harder to understand how I had ended up in this position. I would never have imagined asking a charity for help.

“The moment it really hit me was when my card was declined in the supermarket. It wasn’t even a big shop. I started taking things out of the bags while people waited behind me. I could feel them watching and I was dying of embarrassment. I left with only a few things, sat in the car and cried. Until then I kept telling myself I just needed to budget better. But you can’t budget money that isn’t there.”

Paperweight’s findings are in keeping with UK wide reports, with poverty charity
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation finding some of the fastest rises in hardship among people typically less likely to face it, including those not receiving means-tested benefits, outright homeowners and households without children.

Meanwhile, three in five people seeking support from the debt advice charity StepChange in 2025 were employed.

Bayla Perrin, chief executive of The Paperweight Trust, said: “We must never become accustomed to figures like these. Behind every number is a person who may be lying awake at night, frightened to open another letter, unsure how they will pay the next bill or simply too overwhelmed to know where to begin.”

“What worries me most,” she adds, “is how many people now turning to us never imagined they would need a charity. They have worked, saved and managed independently all their lives, but illness, bereavement, redundancy or the relentless rise in living costs has tipped a once-stable life into uncertainty. These are the ‘new vulnerables’, and their numbers are growing.”

*Names have been changed to protect their identities.