Mayor provides an additional £3.5m boost to help capital’s advice services support low-income Londoners

• Sadiq is investing £3.5m to extend free advice and support services across the capital
• The extended funding will help Londoners access financial support that they are entitled to but otherwise would not have claimed
• The Mayor’s funding has helped more than 60,000 low-income Londoners claim more than £25m over the last two years

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced a further £3.5m in funding to extend free advice and support services across the capital that have already helped low-income Londoners secure more than £25m in financial support.

The Mayor is providing the funding to continue extended free legal, financial and employment advice and support services that are helping Londoners claim the financial support that they are entitled to.

It includes £2.7m for London Citizens Advice and London Legal Support Trust to continue providing support at their network of advice centres and law centres. The funding allows advice agencies to help more Londoners with welfare, debt, housing and employment needs, and trains local professionals to help people access support.

Thanks to Sadiq’s investment of £4.8m over the past two years, London Citizens Advice has increased the number of advisers at its 28 offices and expanded support to community organisations, while the London Legal Support Trust has increased its number of specialist advisers at its network of Centres of Excellence. This has helped more than 52,000 Londoners to claim more than £20m in support that they are entitled to.

A further £810,000 is to be given to 10 community advice partnerships through the Mayor’s Advice in Community Settings programme. This helps to reach Londoners who are less likely to access advice services to learn about their rights and entitlements at a range of locations they already attend, such as community centres, food banks, schools, refugee centres, and baby banks.

This programme has helped to secure £4.7m in support for more than 7,000 Londoners, with particular success at reaching women, Black Londoners, and people who speak a first language other than English.

It is estimated that there is nearly £23bn of support available to people across the UK that is not being claimed.

The Mayor’s support is part of his wide-ranging work to help Londoners most in need. That includes a campaign to help Londoners ensure they are receiving pension credit when they are entitled to it, providing free school meals to all state primary schools, more than 15m free holiday meals to low-income Londoners during school holidays and at weekends, supporting the capital’s first multibank to distribute a range of products to people in need, freezing TfL fares and investing £3.46bn into building the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need.

Today, Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard, Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice, visited Bromley Homeless Advice Service, in Bromley, to see the additional support provided from one of London Legal Support Trust’s centres of excellence. The centre supports Bromley residents who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with a range of services, including advice on benefits, eviction mediation and links to council housing support.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m dedicated to doing all I can to help Londoners in need and am pleased to be able to extend free advice and support services across our capital for another year. These impartial services have helped more than 60,000 Londoners claim more than £25m over the past two years – ensuring those who are struggling are getting the help that they are entitled to. It’s vital that we continue to work together to give these Londoners the helping hand they need, as we build a fairer city for everyone.”

Raj Kapoor, Chair, London Citizens Advice Steering Group and CEO Citizens Advice Brent, said: “We are delighted that the Mayor is continuing to support this important partnership to extend the reach of London's advice services into the community. Whilst we no longer talk of a ‘crisis’ in the cost-of-living, the impact of the past few years has caused so many problems with increased debt, higher energy costs, housing insecurity that it is essential that Londoners experiencing financial and other hardships can access help. Our 'Advising Londoners Partnership', working alongside specialist legal advice agencies and different community groups, enables our local services to extend support to those who need it the most. We can see from the data that this collaborative approach is having a big impact, and we are hugely grateful for the Mayor's continued investment in London's advice sector as demand and unmet need for support in the community to continues to increase at all levels."

Nezahat Cihan, CEO of London Legal Support Trust, said: “We are grateful for the continued support from the Mayor to enable this partnership to continue providing essential life-changing advice services to people who otherwise could not afford to pay for legal advice. This partnership project is crucial in continuing to provide specialist legal advice, reaching out into areas where there is no specialist service, and creating partnerships to provide a holistic service that benefits thousands of Londoners."