Meet the Team - Debt

At Citizens Advice Manchester, our dedicated money team work every day to help our clients with debt-related issues. If you’re currently struggling with debt our team is here to provide free, independent, and impartial advice to help you get your finances back under control - the sooner you come to us for help the better.

This week we caught up with Lyn Ryan, one of our money advice caseworkers to find out what a ‘day in the life’ of a debt adviser is like:

What is your role at CAM? 

I’m Lyn and I’m a money advice caseworker at Manchester. Although I’m normally based on our face-to-face advice team I’m currently on a secondment to our national telephone team, which means I get the opportunity to help all sorts of people with different debts from across England and Wales.

On a typical day we see clients who have been booked in for appointments by local Citizens Advice services but we also get some clients who are referred to us from partners and other projects. 

How does the debt team work? 

Primarily we have our face-to-face team and our MAPS contact centre, but of course there’s currently no in-person advice taking place due to COVID restrictions. The face-to-face team is still advising Manchester residents however, and clients can get in touch via our Adviceline or digitally. 

There’s also also the Greater Manchester Out of Hours service which is available for clients, and something that I work on. Clients can get in touch seven days a week, from 6pm-9pm every night. They’ll normally be put through to us by calling their local service or they can call directly on 0161 850 5053. We also offer digital support though Whatsapp, Messenger and text. 

I think we really are offering support in every way we can do at the moment, especially whilst we can’t currently provide in-person advice. 

What sort of issues do you help clients with?
We deal with all kinds of debt. One of the main issues we get is Council Tax, people usually getting in touch with us because they’ve received a bailiff letter and are worried. There’s a lot of misconceptions (mainly due to TV) about the powers bailiffs actually have to enter your home - in most cases for non-payment of Council Tax, bailiffs have very little power and we explain that to our clients and put them at ease. 

We also deal with non-priority debts including credit cards, loans, parking tickets, penalty charges and benefit overpayments. Rent arrears and utility arrears are things we see a lot of at the moment. We’ve got a whole new group of people coming to us because of COVID who have never needed debt advice before. For a lot of people their businesses have closed or they’re self-employed and have never been in the benefits system. 

What type of advice do you give to clients?

The first thing we do with a client is explain our aims and principles to them, that we’re independent, impartial, free, and confidential and we won’t pass their details onto anyone else without their permission. We then obtain household/background details, take a list of the client’s debts and go through their income and expenditure details. 

A big part of debt advice is income maximisation. We’ll do a benefit check but also explore if they could save money in other ways, for example by changing energy tariffs, trust fund applications, the Warm Home Discount scheme, Discretionary Housing Payments, Council Tax Support, Council Tax discounts and exemptions, or free/reduced cost prescriptions if they don’t already qualify for free NHS costs.

Once we’ve been through income maximisation, gathered all the background and been through the client’s income and expenditure, we then present the options to the client and it’s up to them how to proceed. We can advise them on what is and isn’t a viable option based on their situation and explain this to them, and then it’s completely up to the client if and how they want to proceed.  

What would you say to someone who is unsure about getting debt advice? 

I’d say just get in touch with us, the sooner the better. We’re just here to help, inform and assist wherever the client wants us to - they don’t have to make any commitment by calling us, we’ll always advise on everything we can and then it’s up to them if they want to proceed or not. There’s no pressure on the client at the time of advice, if they want to take some time to think about their options once we’ve advised them, we offer this - typically giving 2 weeks for them to get back in touch.

The best advice I can give to people is to remember that we’re here to help, we’re independent, impartial, and not part of the Council or the government and we’re here to help you. The sooner people get in touch the better. Often they’ll be far more options available where someone hasn’t already gone into the recovery and enforcement stage of debt so get in touch with us today. 

What do you enjoy most about working for CAM? 

The fact that we’re here to help people, and we put our clients first. That’s what it was on the day that I started as a volunteer and it’s still the same now. Debt is an issue which can impact people very deeply and cause a great deal of distress.  Sometimes the help we provide may not even involve taking action, it might just be informing clients of their rights and responsibilities, empowering them to self-assist, and helping to put their minds at ease. The research and campaigns work we do is also a big plus as we are not only helping our individual clients but helping to influence and enact positive change locally and nationally. 

If you need to access confidential debt advice contact our team on 0808 278 7800, make a referral or access our online help resources.