Citizen's Advice and London Legal Support Trust advice programme

In its first two years, the programme has:

• reached over 40,000 Londoners with advice and information about financial support
• helped Londoners secure an additional £17.2 million in financial support that they are entitled to but wouldn’t otherwise have claimed.  

Jasmine

Jasmine* is a full-time carer of a disabled child, and has health issues which means she’s been unable to work for a long time. She isn’t confident using digital technology, and this has meant it’s difficult for her to quickly deal with her debt and benefit issues.  

Jasmine  contacted her local Citizens Advice because of two issues she was facing. She was being evicted from her home, and she had also received a large overpayment of Housing Benefit from her local council. She was extremely stressed about the risk of being made homeless, as well as facing a large amount of debt that she could not clear. 

The Citizens Advice caseworker helped Jasmine make a homelessness application online, and as a result she was contacted by her local council’s housing options team and advised on the available options to her. The caseworker also helped her to understand the Housing Benefit overpayment issue, and helped her challenge the overpayment. This meant the debt was reduced by £17,000.  

Jay

Jay* is a single retired man, living in a Housing Association flat and receiving two small private pensions. He attended a Citizens Advice outreach event to get support and advice because he was struggling to afford the essentials. He wanted help to apply for Pension Credit, because his initial application was refused. The Department of Work and Pensions had asked him to fill in several complicated forms to send to the providers of his private pensions, and he did not know who they were.  

With the help of the Citizens Advice advisor, the private pension providers were found and Jay was helped to fill in and send the relevant forms. A few weeks later, Jay was told that he had been successful and world receive Pension Credit. Along with this, he also found out he was entitled to Housing Benefit which helped him pay his rent. This support made it easier for him to stay afloat and took a great deal of stress away.  

*Names have been changed.