Continuing to change and adapt for our clients

In March 2021, I wrote about how Citizens Advice SORT Group adapted in the face of Covid-19. At that point, we didn’t think the pandemic would have continued to dominate and impact our work and our clients.

Over 2021, we have continued to change and adapt our charity to ensure the most vulnerable people across Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, and Trafford have access to information, advice and guidance.

We have supported 47,400 people across Stockport Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford — predominantly over the phone and web chat as Covid-19 still means our face-to-face services are limited.

In addition to the above, residents have made 33,000 unique visits to our website, and people viewed our information and advice pages 15,000 times.

Issues are becoming more complicated

The issues that people are coming to us with are getting more complicated, with an average of four interactions needed to deal with a client’s advice issues. The top five issues clients needed support with were Debt; Universal Credit and Benefits & Tax Credits, Financial Services, Housing and Utilities & Communications.

Understanding debt

In 2021, our clients came to us with over £21m of debt (an average of £7,880 per client seen with a debt issue). The top five categories were; Credit Cards — £2.7m, Unsecured Loan/ Bank Loan — £2.7m, Council Tax — £2.5m, Friends / Family — £1.3m, Rent Arrears — £1.1m.

Maximising incomes

Increasing incomes for our clients is an integral part of our work. We helped families access an additional £8.3m, of which £5.2m was by supporting families access Universal Credit, and £1.4m was successfully supporting individuals access Personal Independence Payments.

Stockport

In Stockport, the number of people we supported was 13,210. The top five issues were; Debt, Universal Credit, Benefits & Tax Credits, Financial Services and Housing.

We helped local Stockport people increase their incomes by £1.7m — £1.4m of this was successful Universal Credit applications, and £104k was through successful Personal Independence Payment applications.

Our clients had £5.7m of arrears. The top three categories were; Friends / Family — £756k, Council Tax — £576k, and Credit Cards — £548k. In total, we wrote off £705k of debt for people in Stockport.

Kristina’s Council Tax Support story

Kristina lives in Stockport with her son, who has caring needs and was in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and had received a final demand letter, with a court summons from Stockport Council instructing her to repay a £596.30 overpayment of Council Tax Support (CTS) from 2018/19.

Kristina approached the Citizens Advice service in Stockport because she didn’t understand why there was an overpayment, and she was stressed about the thought of going to court.

Our adviser worked with Kristina to understand her situation. We submitted new information to Stockport Council that showed no overpayment was due. They issued a refund for two previous years council tax payments following the allocation of a carer disregard.

Oldham

In Oldham, the number of people we supported in 2021 was 12,203. The top five issues were; Benefits and Tax Credits, Debt, Universal Credit, Financial Services and Housing.

We helped local Oldham people increase their incomes by £3.8m — £1.6m of this was successful Universal Credit applications, and £1.4m was through successful Personal Independence Payment and Attendance Allowance applications.

Our clients had £5.9m of arrears. The top three categories were; Council Tax — £980k, Credit Cards — £909k, and Unsecured Loan / Bank Loans — £727k. In total, we wrote off £718k of debt for people in Oldham.

Angela’s cancer diagnosis

Angela was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had undergone an operation and radiotherapy. She was unable to work following treatment and receiving palliative care. Upon her diagnosis, she applied for Attendance Allowance, but this was refused.

We submitted a mandatory reconsideration of the Attendance Allowance decision. This included full details of the problems Angela has with daily activities, particularly with incontinence.

The mandatory reconsideration was successful and a backdate was awarded worth £900. We were also able to secure £16.34 per week off the council tax through an application to Council Tax Support.

Rochdale

In Rochdale, the number of people we supported in 2021 was 8,571. The top five issues were; Debt, Universal Credit, Benefits & Tax Credits, Financial Services and Housing.

We helped local Rochdale people increase their incomes by £1.8m — £1.3m of this was successful Universal Credit applications, and £152k was through successful Personal Independence Payment applications.

Our clients had £5.7m of arrears. The top three categories were; Unsecured Loan / Bank Loans — £1m, Credit Cards — £618k, and Council Tax — £578k. In total, we wrote off £860k of debt for people in Rochdale.

Kamran’s Personal Independence Payment (PIP) story

Kamran, who lives in Rochdale, has severe learning disabilities. With the support of his friend Steven, he submitted a renewal application for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but this was declined, and Steven reached out to the Citizens Advice service in Rochdale for assistance.

Following a full benefit eligibility check, it was our view that Kamran should also be eligible for Severe Disability Premium (SDP). Our adviser supported Kamran in appealing against the initial decision plus an application for SDP.

The appeal was successful, and the client was awarded the PIP Severe Disability Premium, with a backdated payment of £10,200.

Trafford

In Trafford, the number of people we supported in 2021 was 9,163. The top five issues were; Debt, Universal Credit, Benefits & Tax Credits, Financial Services and Housing.

We helped local Trafford people increase their incomes by £1.1m — £822k of this was successful Universal Credit applications, and £100k was through successful Personal Independence Payment applications.

Our clients had £4m of arrears. The top three categories were; Credit Cards — £574k, Unsecured Loan / Bank Loans — £419k, and Council Tax — £405k. In total, we wrote off £455k of debt for people in Trafford.

Debbie’s discrimination story

Debbie, who lives in Trafford, has a disabled daughter, Kelly, in a wheelchair and fed through the gastro-tube. On visiting a buffet restaurant in Manchester, Debbie was asked to pay £20 for her daughter to sit at the table despite not eating or drinking. The staff member stated that the company policy was that all persons seated at the table must pay.

We supported Debbie to write to the restaurant owner asking them to review their policy which penalised families like hers because of their situation.

Two weeks later, the restaurant owner replied, confirming they had changed their policy to provide reasonable adjustments in their service for those with disabilities, including not charging for those individuals who were not eating or drinking.

Developing our service

Increasing our online services

Over the last 12 months, we have worked hard to increase our online presence, increasing access to advice for those who can use digital services.

We have published a series of advice videos, providing generic advice on common issues like Section 21 eviction notices, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and Domestic Violence.

Our YouTube channel videos have been viewed over 3,000 times since being published.

Hayley Wright, our communications and engagement manager, recently wrote a blog on how we have been creating engaging and informative content across our social platforms.

Recently, with support from Trafford Council, we have been piloting how we can use our local issues data to tailor information, advice and guidance content to residents in different areas across Trafford. You can see a link to some of the targeted ads we have run here.

This year has also seen us increase the number of clients accessing our service by webchat. We have expanded our Webchat service for residents across Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford.

We have seen increases in the number of people accessing our website for information, advice and guidance — a 121% increase over 2021. We also worked with EqualsWeb to improve the accessibility of our website, ensuring content and navigation was accessible as possible.

Supporting those who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Following national research conducted throughout the pandemic, we know that those who are Deaf or hard of hearing have struggled to access information, advice and guidance. Through conversations with local Deaf charities and our data, we know this is an issue in our local communities.

Through research, we learnt that a big issue for the Deaf and hard of hearing community was understanding the routes available to access services. As an immediate solution, we collated information on one page on our website, listing all the ways someone who was Deaf or hard of hearing could access advice; webchat, our text relay service, and a video appointment option.

To increase the accessibility of our service, we also launched a service where someone could book a video appointment accompanied by a professional BSL interpreter provided by SignVideo.

Sharing helpful advice in partnership with local papers

In March, we secured monthly advice columns in Rochdale Online and the Oldham Chronicle, allowing us to reach new audiences with timely advice based on the issues we are seeing in these local areas.

We’ve shared advice on what to do if you want to leave your job, steps to take if you’ve fallen behind on your bills, and rights for students moving into a shared house for the first time.

Our advice columns have been read over 2000 times online throughout this year, and printed copies have been circulated across Oldham. An example of the type of column we publish is here.

Advocating on behalf of our clients, locally

We have used our data to help influence policy, locally and nationally. Covid-19 had, and in some circumstances, continues to impact people’s lives.

#KeepTheLifeline — £20 cut to Universal Credit

Across the charity, we supported residents with over 16,000 issues (25% of all issues) relating to Universal Credit — most of these were issues relating to applying for UC.

The removal of the £20 uplift in UC put at risk around £102m of spending across Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford, and decreased peoples weekly income at a time of great uncertainty.

Locally, we played an active part in supporting local MPs and Councillors to raise the issue in Parliament and local council chambers. This action resulted in several local MPs writing to the Chancellor and Trafford Council passing a notice of motion.

The Manchester Evening News also wrote a piece on the impact of the removal on people living in Greater Manchester.

Buy Now, Pay Later

In September, we joined our national colleagues in highlighting the issues with Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) credit options. The Citizens Advice report ‘Buy now, pay later: what happens if you can’t pay later?’ highlights that customer journeys often lack the necessary care, information, and affordability checks to stop people from falling into debt.

Citizens Advice research found that:

• 2 in 5 BNPL users struggled to meet a BNPL repayment.
• 1 in 3 BNPL users have missed a payment or made a late payment in the last year
• BNPL users were charged a total of £39 million in late fees.

Our ask to the regular was a greater focus on:

1. Ensuring product design facilitates, rather than hinders, informed decision making.
2. Making critical information clear, engaging and easy to access — especially at the checkout.
3. Making adequate affordability checks central to buy now pay later products.
4. Ensuring customers in financial difficulty are treated fairly and consistently.

Unmanageable debt for private renters

We have a housing and debt team and, in 2021, expanded our housing legal aid team to start supporting clients in the Liverpool City Region areas. We have seen a continued increase in the number of clients coming to us who live in private rented accommodation, which chimed with our national charity research that 1 in 3 private renters have lost income because of the pandemic.

We raised the issue on social media, locally with Councillors and MPs and actively promoted support and tools through a targeted media campaign to support people in private rented accommodation to access housing and debt support.

We also joined the national campaign calling for:

• A legal ban on bailiff action and a pause on all possession proceedings during the national lockdown in England, and in tiers two and above, beyond 11 January
• A national programme of loans and grants to help people who have fallen behind on rent due to the pandemic.

Looking into the future

Our service must continue to adapt to the needs of residents and emerging issues.

Cost of living crisis

The cost of living crisis has grown in scale and impact, leaving those on the lowest income most exposed.

The energy price cap is set to increase this April and is predicted to push an additional 2 million more households into fuel poverty, bringing the total to 6 million.

National Insurance Contributions are rising by 1.25% in April. In real terms, it means that an employee earning £20,000 a year will have to fork out an extra £130.

The impact of increased inflation on everyday bills. The Bank of England predicts inflation could rise as high as 7 per cent — a level not seen since 1991.

Rents and mortgage payments are expected to rise. Rents increased by an average of 1.7% to November, and with an anticipated increase in interest rates, mortgage payments will increase.

Continuing to create a more equitable charity

Covid-19 has highlighted inequalities across our communities, service, and charity.

Over the coming year, we will continue to work with our communities to deliver inclusive access initiatives; driven by our desire to be accessible to all. This will mean;

• understanding our data and using it to guide decisions on service delivery
• working with our partners and other community-based stakeholders to hear lived experiences, and
• holding a mirror up to ourselves as an employer and volunteering organisation, and holding ourselves to the highest standards.

We’re here to help

As you can see, we support people with a wide range of issues. There are a number of ways to contact us. More information can be found on our website here.