Responsibilities:
Provide advice and a limited casework service covering the full range of debt and money management advice, including breathing space, debt relief orders, bankruptcy, and debt management plans.
Maintaining standards of service delivery and ensuring that advice and casework conforms to the Citizens Advice membership requirements, the Advice Quality Standard, and the minimum individual file review score of the Money and Pensions Service Advice Quality Framework.
Research and Campaigns
Essential Criteria
Here are some examples of how we help our clients:
In Person Enquiry.
Mr Jones attended our drop-in service regarding multiple debts which had accumulated when, due to severe and sudden illness, he was forced to finish work. Mr Jones was unable to communicate by telephone due to his illness so needed in person support. He was anxious as his creditors had been contacting him asking him for payments and some were threatening court action.
The Caseworker helped Mr Jones obtain details of all his debts. They arranged a formal Breathing Space to stop further action from his creditors for 60 days. The Caseworker helped Mr Jones complete a budget, checked his benefit income was correct, and helped him claim charitable support to maximise his income. They also looked at practical ways of helping him reduce his bills and expenditure. Unfortunately, Mr Jones still had very limited income to make affordable payment arrangements to his creditors.
The Caseworker then advised him of all the options and solutions available. Mr Jones chose a Debt Relief Order insolvency solution, which the Caseworker completed, to give him a fresh start by effectively clearing his debts.
Telephone Enquiry.
Miss Smith contacted our advice line for help with her energy arrears. She struggled with a language barrier due to a limited level of English and was vulnerable due to a mental health condition. With a combination of several telephone calls, together with interpreting services, the Caseworker was able to successfully help her.
The Caseworker contacted the fuel provider concerned and advised of her vulnerabilities. They requested that Miss Smith’s details were placed on the Priority Services Register. Even though it was Wintertime, Miss Smith had not been topping up her prepayment meter as she could not afford to do so, so arrears via unpaid standing charges, were also accruing. The meter was also in an awkward position, so she found it difficult to access to top up. The Caseworker assisted her in contacting the fuel provider to install a new smart meter which she could access easier. Miss Smith was then able to use an app to top up her meter which she found more convenient.
The Caseworker assisted Miss Smith in completing a budget, benefit claims, charitable support and fuel vouchers. The Caseworker looked at ways of reducing her expenditure and easy energy efficiency measures Miss Smith could undertake herself in her home.
As a result of these actions, Miss Smith then had some disposable income and was able to start to top up her prepayment meter regularly and keep warm. The Caseworker also assisted her with the completion of a successful trust fund application to her fuel provider, to repay the arrears in full.
Citizens Advice Liverpool is a charity that provides free, confidential and impartial advice to people who live and work in the city. We depend on a workforce of paid staff and over 120 trained volunteers. We give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem. We are the leading provider of advice and advocacy services in Liverpool and have helped clients with over 106,000 issues in 2022/2023.
CAL have achieved accreditation with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, showing we are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our workforce. We've also gained an award for outstanding contribution by an employer to workplace health and wellbeing 2022 by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust.
We've gained awards from Citizens Advice National recognising our Advising Margainalised Communities Team for championing equity, diversity and inclusion in both 2021 and 2021. We were also named volunteer team of the year in 2022.
