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MoneySavingExpert founder and Sunday Mirror columnist Martin Lewis is to donate half a million pounds to enable food banks to roll out a pioneering programme enabling thousands of people to get free help with money and debts.

Mr Lewis will help the Trussell Trust , which runs a network of more than 420 food banks across the UK, to roll out its “financial triage, debt and money advice” service to 30 new centres across the UK.

Citizens Advice will also receive £1million from Mr Lewis' own charity fund and the Personal Finance Education Group a further £500,000 for its work in schools.

The plans were unveiled as Moneysupermarket.com announced a £20.6million windfall in bonuses, payable to Mr Lewis and certain MoneySavingExpert employees following its purchase of the website three years ago.

Of this amount, Mr Lewis is entitled to £19.2 million and the remainder is due to the employees concerned.

The Trussell Trust ran eight pilot projects in early 2015, working with specialist debt charities. These were in Cardiff, Coventry, Dundee, Durham, Hammersmith and Fulham in London, Stroud, Bangor and Newry.

The pilots were designed to investigate how effective it would be to introduce a service in food banks where clients could get access to help with household budgeting, seeking alternatives to expensive payday lenders and breaking out of debt cycles.

(Image: Getty)

The scheme means that volunteers at the food banks can put clients in touch with specialist debt advisers.

Advisers may be visiting the food banks on certain days, making it easier for people to get access to help with their money problems rather than having to wait a long time for an appointment.

Sometimes a client may specifically ask a volunteer to put them in touch with someone, or on other occasions they may be chatting to a volunteer and mention their financial issues.

The Trussell Trust will now work to identify which food banks across the UK will have the new service.

It has worked with various partners to provide the service, including Citizens Advice, Advice Northern Ireland, Christians Against Poverty and StepChange.

As one of Britain’s most high-profile and trusted consumer champions, Mr Lewis has thrown his weight behind campaigns such as financial education in schools and the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal, which has given people step-by-step guidance on how they can reclaim their cash.

He set up the MoneySavingExpert website in 2003 for £100. It was purchased by Moneysupermarket in 2012 for an estimated £87million and Mr Lewis took on the role of MoneySavingExpert’s executive chairman in September.

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 £1million.

"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.”

Trussell Trust chief executive David McAuley 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 advisers 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 food banks to extend the pilot.”