Stewart McCulloch joined Christians Against Poverty (CAP) at the start of the year as its new chief executive. He previously led the charity Stewardship.

CAP’s latest report says that 46 per cent of its clients have considered taking their own life as a way out of their debt, and nine out of ten have reported having sleepless nights from financial anxiety (News, 24 May).

On the podcast this week, Francis Martin interviews Mr McCulloch about the findings of the report, as well as how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting CAP’s clients. He also explains how CAP works with churches, why the charity is unapologetically Christian in its approach, offering clients prayer and invitations to church, and he calls for politicians to do more to tackle debt.

“Our clients are our neighbours, they are friends of friends, they are the people amongst us, and so it’s a really transformative ministry in so many different ways,” he says. “It’s never just about the finances, because it’s about the social isolation, it’s about the anxiety, it’s about the spiritual poverty as well as the material poverty.” 

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.