Client Stories

We were recently approached by a young lady with a young baby who had fled her marital home after suffering domestic abuse.

She had approached her local council presenting as street homeless with a baby and was told she wasn’t eligible for assistance due to her immigration status. Our housing team contacted the local council on the same day, and through their expertise and challenge, were able to ensure the client and her baby were placed in emergency temporary housing while the council made the proper enquiries into her homelessness status.

She has since been offered and has accepted a 2 bedroom flat and we also assisted her in claiming Universal Credit in her own name for herself and her baby, meaning she is now financially independent.

When she presented at our office, the client had been in a state of distress all day and if not for coming to us for assistance could have ended up in a very dangerous situation when being forced to return to the marital home.

Here is what she had to say about the support and advice she received:

“Thank you so much for your support, without you I cannot imagine how my circumstances may have turned out, once again thank you for everything”

The client presented about her son who was under 3 and had learning, speech & language difficulties. The client had a support letter from health visitor, but due to age no formal SEN assessments had yet taken place, however the client could still apply for DLA.  We initially advised the client to request a supporting statement from the childcare setting, and to return with this so the DLA application could be submitted. We also advised the client to attend Brandlesholme community centre for support with food.

The outcome for this client is that DWP have agreed to pay the middle rate of DLA for the child (backdated to application date) with a review in 2027.

Here is what she had to say about the support and advice they received:

“Thank you to Citizens Advice for your help, the DLA will make a big difference to us and we are now looking to move to accommodation which is more suitable and we can afford to buy fresh food. Thank you”.

Martin is in social housing and was seeking advice around buying the property.

We provided Martin with the information he needed surrounding this and also advised him that the government have a specialised call centre to help with checking eligibility and looking if buying your home is the best option for you.

Martin also enquired about benefit advice and was signposted to the relevant place for guidance on this.

Luke had recently attended an employment tribunal against his employer where the judge asked him to provide a schedule of loss, Luke required assistance as he was unsure on how to do this.

We provided Luke with the relevant information needed including an example schedule of loss. We also provided details for FRU who may be able to assist Luke with this as well as his new court hearing.

Paul made an enquiry to us in relation to challenging a child maintenance service decision that left him without enough money to cover his living expenses.

We advised Luke that he needed to submit a mandatory reconsideration to challenge this and provided information on how to do this.