What to expect from us

What we can help with

Our aim is to give you the knowledge and confidence to find a way forward, whatever the problem. Our advisers will not tell you what to do, but will give you the information or advice for you to make an informed decision.

As a charity we receive funding to deliver services focusing on certain advice matters.

We are able to offer information and advice on the following areas:

  • Benefits

  • Debt

  • Employment

  • Housing

We can only signpost to other sources of help such as the Citizens Advice website on the following:

  • Family

  • Immigration

  • Consumer

The Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline is a unit dedicated to consumer issues, they can be called on 0808 223 1133.  Calls from mobiles and landlines are free.

Your initial assessment

When you first contact us, we will focus on an initial assessment of your query, so we can work out how best to support you. We may need to ask your permission to store extra information or contact you again. We will always try to resolve your query on first contact, however, if we’re unable to resolve your query straight away, we may need to arrange an appointment for you, or direct you to a specialist organisation.

If you have more than one issue, we will help you to identify the main/most urgent concern on your first visit and initially focus on that area. We will provide information to allow you to find a way forward on all of your issues, which may include self-help, signposting/referrals, or inviting you to return for further support from an adviser.

It’s important that we understand as much as we can about your main query, and you can help us by letting us know of any important dates, or bringing in any letters or documents that link to your query.

This initial meeting will last around 5-15 minutes depending on your situation. The adviser will ask questions to help us understand what help is needed and what you can do yourself with guidance from us.

Referrals and signposting

Sometimes we may need to refer you to a specialist provider who is better suited to deal with your query.

There are two ways which we may do this:

  • Signpost - we will provide details of alternative organisations to contact and explain why they are better suited to answer your query

  • Referral - we will pass your personal information and details of your query on to a specialist provider who can help solve your query. We will ask your permission before we do this and let you know if there may be any costs involved in the future.

We can also provide a list of local solicitors if you prefer to find your own.

Advice appointments

If full advice is needed, we will make arrangements to call or see you in person at a pre-arranged date and time.

Advice appointments should usually last no more than 1 hour, and will allow the adviser to fully explore your situation and explain the options available to find a solution for your issue.  In some cases this may mean further contact is needed, which will be discussed during the appointment.  

If all of our appointment slots have been taken, we may be able to add you to our appointment waiting list.  If this happens, we will aim to call you within 5 working days, but we will not be able to give you a specific time.  We will try to call you 3 times (on different days), before closing your enquiry and sending you details of how to access our services if you still need us.

We know that sometimes things happen which means people can’t attend their appointments.  If this happens, we ask that clients let us know as soon as possible to allow us to rearrange and offer that appointment to someone else.

If clients are more than 10 minutes late for their appointment we will not be able to proceed that day. We will try to offer an alternative, but due to the demands on our service we cannot guarantee this. People who fail to keep their telephone or face to face appointment will be offered 1 further appointment. If they still fail to attend their case will be closed.