A mother came to one of our member organisations after spending years trying to find a suitable home for herself and her two daughters.
Her eldest daughter has complex health and disability needs. She uses a wheelchair, needs a hospital bed and specialist equipment, yet the family were living in a small privately rented flat with steps, no suitable permanent ramp and too little space for her equipment.
The family had been given the highest priority for rehousing, but their assessment did not properly reflect the daughter’s needs. The strain was also taking a serious toll on her mother’s health.
An adviser went through the family’s housing application and medical evidence, identified where the process had gone wrong, secured additional occupational therapy evidence and challenged the assessment. They persisted until the family’s circumstances were properly reconsidered.
Within around six months, the family was offered a more suitable home. The daughter gained more space and independence. Her mother’s previously very high blood pressure stabilised. She is now working and feels healthier and more active.
She described her adviser as “a godsend”.
Everyday free and independent advice services prevent people being evicted from their homes, from spiralling into unmanageable debt, and help them get the benefits and other support they need to live their lives to the full.
The findings of AdviceUK’s first ever national poll on public attitudes to advice (published today) show that the public understands the value of advice services more clearly than policymakers sometimes do.
Research commissioned by AdviceUK from Focaldata, surveying 3,014 UK adults, finds that 88% of UK adults believe everyone should be able to access free, independent advice when they have a problem. Almost as many (89%) say getting advice early stops problems getting worse. And 85% of the UK public think free, independent advice should be treated as an essential local service, alongside the NHS, councils and courts.
We are living in challenging political and economic times. The national poll shows that nearly two-thirds of UK adults, some 63%, had dealt with at least one of ten common problems in the previous year, including money or debt, energy bills, housing, council tax, employment and benefits. Young people are facing many of these issues too. More than eight in 10 people aged 18 to 24 reported dealing with at least one of these problems in the past year. A striking third had experienced an employment-related problem. Yet young adults were the least confident age group that felt they could find free, independent advice tomorrow if they needed it.
Ahead of party conference season this should matter! The government has placed tackling youth economic inactivity; better access to housing; tackling the cost-of-living crisis and improved mental health at the centre of its agenda. The advice sector has a central role to play in this agenda and can make a real difference.
Free, independent and timely advice is prevention in practice. Advice services are trusted and rooted in their communities. They see the whole person, understand how problems with debt, housing, benefits, employment and health can overlap, and help people resolve them before they escalate. They work alongside health services, schools, housing providers, councils and employment support – while retaining the independence that allows clients to trust them.
Importantly, when people do receive advice, it works. Seventy-four per cent of UK adults who responded to the poll said it solved their problem, improved their situation or prevented it from getting worse. Sixty-eight per cent said it reduced stress, improved wellbeing or increased their confidence.
Yet precisely when advice can make the difference, many services are struggling to provide it. The services expected to provide free and trusted advice are being stretched to breaking point.
Three-quarters (75.6%) of 188 organisations, which responded to an AdviceUK membership survey this year, reported rising demand as a major source of pressure. Just under a half had reduced services in the previous year, while 51% had turned people away because they lacked capacity.
That is an extraordinary mismatch: the public place high priority on free and independent advice and agree it should be viewed as an essential local service; yet the services expected to deliver the support are rationing their support.
This will send ripples through our social infrastructure. It will be borne first by the people who cannot get help in time. Public services will then have to deal with the consequences: councils responding to homelessness, the NHS responding to worsening mental health and courts managing disputes that might have been resolved earlier.
As all political parties gather for their conferences, there is an opportunity to focus on how they can close this gap.
This government should match its rhetoric with the infrastructure required to deliver it. It should recognise free and independent advice as an essential local service; provide sustainable, multi-year funding, and invest in an advice sector workforce strategy that enables services to recruit, train and retain skilled advisers.
The public mandate about the value of free and independent advice services in the UK is clear: three-quarters of UK adults believe government spending on early advice is a worthwhile, long-term investment. AdviceUK’s 700 members as well as the wider sector are ready to work with Government to act on that public mandate. Let’s get started Mr Burnham!
Liz Bayram, Chief Executive of AdviceUK, the UK’s largest network of free and independent advice services.
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Press office email: press@adviceuk.org.uk or tel: 07955 296206
