A FARMING charity set up to provide financial assistance to people in hardship has recorded a 67 per cent rise in requests for help from working families.

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution paid out grants of more than £2.35m to 1,357 families nationwide last year – a huge increase on 2015, which saw the charity hand out a total of £1.89m.

Many of those who benefited were from the north of England, primarily flood-stricken Cumbria. In the early part of 2016 RABI gave out emergency grants of £91,000 to flood victims in the North.

However, the charity said that the real story of the year was the number of claims received from working farmers, farmworkers and their dependants with £450,169 paid out – compared with £269,000 the previous year.

The charity’s chief executive, Paul Burrows, said 2016 had been a challenging year for many in the farming sector with bad weather, animal disease, fluctuating commodity prices and late RPA payments all contributing to the difficulties encountered by some. He said: “Farmers, in our experience, do not want or readily seek charity. However, our message to them is ‘there is no shame in turning to RABI to help you through the bad times’.”

The figures suggest that Northumberland was not so badly hit as other places in the country, but nevertheless claims still increased by almost a third.

“From January 1 to November 16, 2016 we paid out grants of £40,166 in Northumberland, helping 36 cases – a 30 per cent increase on the same period in 2015,” said RABI communications manager, Rob Harris.

Sally Conner, regional manager for the North, said: “We can help working farmers and their families who are either ill or injured. In that situation we would provide money to pay for a relief worker or some kind of domestic help. Anyone who applies is assessed by our welfare officers who go out and they can often arrange state benefits for people.”

Nationally, RABI welfare officers helped people claim £286,691 in state benefits.

“There are so many people within the farming community who are just too proud to ask for help or who know their entitlements,” Sally added. “If people are struggling with debt and are completely overwhelmed, we can pay for people to get their accounts up to date which is also a big help to some people.”

RABI chairman, Malcolm Thomas, added: “There can be no doubt that there continues to be a great deal of hardship and suffering within our industry and the cases that appear before our grants committee are the clearest evidence that, for all sorts of reasons, people can find themselves in extremely difficult and harrowing circumstances.”

l If you or someone you know in farming is in need of help please call the freephone helpline 0808 281 9490.