Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell
Caroline
Gilchrist
Fundraising Manager
Mission
Citizens Advice Epsom and Ewell is an extremely well known, trusted and longstanding local charity. We run a busy service for local people in need of advice and information from our main office in Epsom and over the phone. Using a predominantly volunteer workforce we provide high quality advice and information on a range of enquiry areas including welfare benefits, debt, housing and employment, and we achieve excellent outcomes for our clients. Through the considerable expertise of our volunteer team we also have the flexibility to offer a variety of levels of service. Depending on the need and vulnerability of the client, we can provide information and signposting on the one hand right up to full tribunal representation on the other - as well as the full range of services in between. We also run projects that provide advice for people with severe and enduring mental health issues, and money advice for Housing Association tenants and other local people who are in debt. Although we are small through the hard work of our small cohort of paid staff and our 60 volunteers we are able to 'punch above our weight' in terms of the impact of our work. For example, through our work, last year our clients were over million pounds better off.
Category
Poverty Alleviation
Additional Information
Even though last year we helped more than 3,000 local people with nearly 9,000 issues, demand on our services is increasing all the time. This is largely because of welfare reform, ongoing policies of austerity, increases in the number of people in insecure employment including on zero hours contracts and lack of affordable housing. At the same time, with the pressure on local authority funding and funding of health and social care, our own funding is static. We therefore have limited resources to meet this increasing demand.