7:13 am, February 28, 2023
Motor industry charity Ben is expecting to receive 14,000 calls for assistance this year, the Car Dealer Podcast has been told.
The latest episode of the weekly show featured the charity’s director of partnerships, engagement and income, Matt Wigginton.
He explained how Ben has been hearing from a growing number of motor industry individuals who are expressing requests for assistance.
‘We are seeing the industry hurting,’ he told hosts Rebecca Chaplin and James Batchelor.
‘We’re seeing more people reaching out to Ben for support across a wide range of areas, and more people reaching out at the point of crisis.
‘We tend to find that people tend to come to us when they’ve got nowhere else to turn – and that shows no sign of changing.
‘A very large number of people are calling our hotlines – around 50 a day, which is a staggering number.
‘When I started at Ben in 2015 we probably handled around 3,000 enquiries a year, but we’ll probably do around 14,000 this year.’
Wigginton explained that part of the reason for the increase in requests for help is because the type of work Ben now specialises in has changed.
‘We are less of a benevolent fund these days – that’s not really what we do very much now. What we are doing is intervention stuff.
‘Instead of giving benevolent funds to people – although we still do that to some degree – what we mostly do its to provide services.
‘And, as you might expect, a lot of that is around mental health, counselling, and supporting people with financial concerns and helping people to overcome challenges.’
You can hear the full interview by listening to the Car Dealer Podcast below, or by streaming it via Spotifty or Apple Podcasts.
Wigginton was also on the show as a guest judge as Chaplin and Batchelor discussed their favourite stories over the past seven days.
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