Henry Smith has generously funded us to support the delivery of our Adviceline for 3 years, allowing us to dedicate paid resources to answering our high volume of calls. Our assessors are the first point of contact and undertake initial assessments to understand the problem and identify the most appropriate course of action for the clients. This added capacity has meant that we have been able to expand our initial assessment processes across multiple digital channels including email, webchat and WhatsApp.

Dr Edwards and Bishop King’s Fulham Charity is a local charity which has worked since 1618 to relieve poverty in the old London borough of Fulham.

The affluence of many Fulham Wards often masks areas of poverty. As demand has increased for our services, with ever more complex issues, we have sought to increase our Assessor team. Dr Edwards and Bishop King’s grant has enabled us to increase our Assessor capacity to support the increasing numbers of Fulham residents needing help with debt, welfare benefits, housing and employment issues. Our Assessors are the first point of contact for people accessing our services, whether by face to face walk sessions at our site in Fulham, our Adviceline or Digital platforms.

The Hammersmith & Fulham foodbanks provide short-term, emergency food to individuals and families in crisis.  The purpose of our foodbank advice project is to try to resolve the problems that caused foodbank dependency. We provide welfare advice and assistance on a variety of issues such as benefits, housing and homelessness and debt. Clients self-refer themselves to us though the Foodbank network. Our Foodbank advice is funded through our LBHF grant.

City Bridge is one of the biggest funders in London and have funded us for three years for an outreach advice project.  We work closely with our partner organisations to support those ‘hard-to-reach’ clients who need us most but have not always accessed our service.

This project is open to clients referred by the following partner organisations:

West London Welcome
Upper Room
Barons Court Project
Smart Works
St Andrews Church (Saturday homeless project)
Mind
Look Ahead
River House
DAWS / Turning Point
St. Mungo’s
Hestia
Nourish Hub
Alcohol Service (CGL)​

Young Lives vs Cancer is the national children’s cancer charity.  It supports children and young people aged 0-25 diagnosed with cancer, and their families. We have a contract with YLVC to advise their social workers and service users on the full range of topics covered by Citizens Advice according to their advice needs, excepting immigration.  This is mostly concentrated on benefits advice, as cancer in the family almost immediately places families under financial stress when time has to be taken off work to care for a child or young person during treatment.   Many families have to claim benefits for the first time and have no knowledge or prior experience of the benefits system, unlike most Citizens Advice clients. Issues can also arise with employment as a result of the need to take time off work, and with debt as a result of reduced income.  The YVLC advice line aims to assist families with any of their advice needs in respect of any ‘social welfare law’ issue.

Debt Free Advice provides debt advice (one off and casework) at CAHF. Debt Free Advice is funded by the Money Advice & Pension Service in partnership with Toynbee Hall, with the aim of assisting clients with debts to find a realistic and reasonable solution in order to become debt free.

If you have a problem with debt please call our debt partner organisation, Debt Free Advice on 0800 808 5700, or click here to find other ways to get help from Debt Free Advice.