Visiting friends and family over Christmas, buying presents,
turkey with the trimmings – how much will they all really cost?
If you are worried about how you are going to manage your money
in January, we at the City Advice Team are here
with some tips:
- Don’t ignore the problem – the sooner you get
advice about your debts, the easier it will be to deal with them.
Contact us at City Advice.
- Get free advice – think carefully before going
to a fee-charging adviser when free, independent help is available.
The experienced workers at City Advice can be your
first port of call – our details are at the end of this article. We
can help you access specialist debt advice.
- Don’t borrow money to pay off your debts without
thinking carefully – always take advice before making this
step.
- If you have lost your job, or are off work because of
illness, check whether your payments are covered by payment
protection insurance – and always read the small print of
these policies. We can help you with that, why not give us a
call.
- Check that you are claiming all the benefits you
can – City Advice can check your
entitlements. There may also be charities that can help you and we
can advise you about that.
- Make a budget to help decide how much you can put
towards repaying debts – here at City
Advice we can help you work it out.
- Decide on your best option for dealing with your
debts – we can identify the range of options you have and
how each one might help you.
- Make sure you tackle priority debts first –
some debts are more important than others – for example if you fall
behind on rent or other housing payments you could lose your home.
We at City Advice are here to help you navigate
this.
- See if you can reduce your fuel debt and
costs. We can put you in touch with our new project here
at Toynbee Hall, - East End Energy Fit Project (EEEF). This team
can help people with fuel debts to apply to energy trust funds to
get the fuel debt paid, help you apply for support grants for
essential items in times of distress, such as a new cooker, refer
you to other energy trusts and grant schemes for home heating and
insulation and signpost people to energy efficiency advice services
available for free in person and by phone locally. Contact
City Advice and we can put you in touch with the
EEEF team.
- Don’t struggle on your own, take action –
don’t delay. We at City Advice can help you
today!
City Advice
Download the City Advice Christmas opening
hours (PDF, 296kb)
Telephone Advice - call 020 7392 2919 between
these times:
Mondays 8am - 1pm
Tuesdays 12pm - 5pm
Wednesdays 12pm - 5pm
Thursdays 11am - 4pm
Fridays 10am - 1pm
Saturdays 11am - 1pm.
Or leave a message with your name and number and someone will
call you back by the next working day.
Text Advice - text MESSAGE + your query to 07432
658083
Email Advice - email
city.advice@toynbeehall.org.uk We
can tell you about our face-to-face sessions when you contact
us.