Newsletter
Our Community Money Advice Centre (CMAC) offers free, confidential and independent advice to anyone who lives within Birmingham City boundaries. Backed by a Matrix Mark and members of the Institute of Money Advisers, we provide specialist help in both debt and welfare benefits. Our advisers are trained and experienced staff who understand that being in debt can be stressful and difficult and provide debt advice to help relieve this.
Drop in
We are open every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for drop in from 9:30am-3:30pm. Everyone who becomes a client of Birmingham Settlement’s Money Advice service, is given a welfare benefits check and budgeting assistance.
We also work alongside individuals to draw up a list of income and expenditure in order to establish what they can and can’t afford to pay. We will then provide debt advice to help clients prioritise the debts, deal with the most important ones first (like rent, council tax or gas), help work out other repayments (like store cards and catalogue debts) and negotiate with creditors.
If a client has to go to court, we’ll normally be able to represent them.
If part of the debt problem is due to not being paid the correct benefits, then we’ll help to resolve this too.
We are also able to provide referrals to other specialist services if clients have additional needs that they need support with.
Reaching Out – Vulnerable women
Our Reaching Out project offers money advice to particularly vulnerable and marginalised groups across the city. The project especially focuses on vulnerable women with multiple challenging needs who are trying to achieve financial stability – including domestic violence, substance misuse & addiction, mental health issues, offending or who are exiting the sex trade.
Housing associations
We work with three housing associations to provide financial advice and advocacy to tenants. Although we work with three housing associations primarily we receive referrals from almost every housing association in the region as well as local authorities. We help tenants who are in arrears with their housing provider and need support to pay their bills. We are able to negotiate with housing associations and advocate on behalf of tenants in court to help them to save their homes.
Foodbank
We deliver money advice at Birmingham Central Foodbank. We help people to find alternative solutions to their situation such as reducing expenditure or arranging affordable payment plans with their creditors, in order to relieve the desperation faced by people who struggle to feed themselves.
Older people
Money Advisers are providing expert support to older people in the local community. This service is offered as part of our Ageing Well programme and helps to promote independent living among older people. We work in partnership with a number of organisations to provide money advice to older people across the city.
Children and families
Through our Children’s Centre we provide financial advice to new families to help them cope with the financial pressures of parenthood. We help families access benefits and other support and plan their finances for the future.
If you would like more information about our Money Advice services, including debt advice and benefits advice, and how you can access them please contact 0121 250 3000 or email advice@bsettlement.org.uk.