Research and campaigns
As an advice service we hold a huge amount of insight and data about the type of problems our communities face.
We can use this insight and data to do several things:
Our clients who were helped to access charitable support such as foodbanks, furniture, charitable grants etc.
One of our responses to the Governments proposals to make changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit (UC) Health Element was to look at how many of our clients who needed support to access charitable support were disabled. Below is a chart showing clients who were received Charitable Support in the period April 2022 to March 2025.
65% had a Long-Term Health (LTH) condition and 9% were Disabled, compared to those who were not disabled/had no health condition who represented 26%. This shows that more clients who had a Disability or Long Term Health Condition needed charitable support due to their circumstances.
Negative budgets
Nationally, more than half of the clients all the Citizens Advice offices help with debt advice are in negative budget. This means they have no money left after paying their bills.
Among the people we help with debt advice, the average amount of debt is at near record levels. This is true of energy debt, rent debt and council tax debt.
Top Debt Issues in Sefton 2019 – 2024
2019 – 2020 Council Tax Debt
2020 – 2021 Energy Debt
2021 – 2022 Energy Debt
2022 – 2023 Council Tax Debt
2023 – 2024 Council Tax Debt
The groups most struggling with debt are Single Household and Single Households with children.
Flexible Support Fund
Childcare payments made using the Flexible Support Fund can be reimbursed through Universal Credit to provide support with the following month’s upfront childcare costs. We are looking at our clients cases to see if parents on Universal Credit have problems accessing help for upfront childcare costs.
We are also looking out for examples where clients have been able to access the Flexible Support Fund but have still struggled to enter or stay in work due to upfront childcare costs.
For information about support for child care costs if you are on Universal Credit click here (this link takes you to a Government website)