Foodbanks to start offering financial and debt advice after Martin Lewis donation

Organisers of the financial services pilot claim that 90% of those being referred for debt and money advice in one particular food bank had resolved their issues or were close to having done so after two months.

Financial Guru, Martin Lewis, has donated £500,000 to the Trussell Trust's foodbanks. (Getty)

Trussell Trust foodbanks are to offer debt and money advice nationwide, following a successful pilot scheme and a donation of half a million pounds.

Martin Lewis, the financial guru behind MoneySavingExpert.com, provided the Trussell Trust – Britain’s largest provider of emergency food – with £500,000 to help expand financial services nationwide.

Mr Lewis and the Trussell Trust began their collaboration in September with eight pilot projects, in different regions, offering immediate access to household budgeting and money advice in food banks. They claim that 90% of those being referred to money services at one particular food bank had resolved their issues or were close to having done so after two months.

David McAuley, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said: “These pilots have been a huge help to some of our most vulnerable clients. People struggling with housing payments, redundancy or illness whilst on a low income were helped by advisors to have the confidence to tackle their finances and turn their lives around.

“We’re very grateful to Martin for his extremely generous donation and look forward to working with more foodbanks to extend the pilot.”

Mr Lewis said: "Over the last three years, MoneySavingExpert has continued to thrive and grow, cutting millions of people's bills and fighting their corner. I am as excited as ever for the future of the site.

"On the back of receiving this payment, the charity Citizens Advice will receive another £1 million. Also from my existing charity fund, both the Trussell Trust and the Personal Finance Education Group will get £500,000 to fund their important work in financial triage and education."

A nationwide roll-out of the financial advice services is expected to commence in early 2016.

Over one million people received three days’ emergency food from the charity’s food banks in the last financial year – an increase of 163% on the previous year.

In a separate pilot scheme, it was also announced earlier this week that the Department for Work and Pensions has posted job advisers in a food bank. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pension secretary, said: “I am trialling at the moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank for the time that the food bank is open, and we are already getting very strong feedback about that.

“If this works and if the other food banks are willing to encompass this and we think it works, we think we would like to roll this out across the whole of the UK.”