Money Worries Eased With Debt Advice for Birmingham Residents
Midlands based Mercian Housing Association has joined forces with Birmingham City Council to offer debt advice to residents who are struggling to manage their finances and prioritise their bill payments.
As part of a three month trial, Cheryl Brown, a Debt Advisor from Birmingham City Council has been making weekly visits to Mercian Housing to have face to face meetings with those in most need. Residents are referred to Cheryl by Mercian’s Income Team and Community Development Officer to help them improve their financial situation.
Cheryl said, ‘Many of the people who are referred to me are in a lot of debt. They often don’t get their priorities correct and this leads to them paying less significant bills first, instead of the important ones such as their rent. Together we create an income expenditure form to find out what they are spending their money on and how they can make changes in order to budget more efficiently.
Getting involved at the early stages of the problem really does make a difference – helping to ensure that their debt does not spiral out of control. I explain the seriousness of prioritising and make the consequences clear.’
One Mercian resident who has benefited from the advice offered by the debt advice service, had arrears on her rent, council tax, various credit cards and loans. By carrying out a benefit calculation, Cheryl was able to pick up on unclaimed benefit entitlement, organised help with the resident’s rent account by completing a financial statement and arranged for the resident to have a lower payment arrangement with her creditors – this enabled her to offer a higher amount in order to reduce her priority debt.
Mercian Housing is committed to providing opportunities and information to customers to improve their social and economic well being, helping develop communities people take pride in.
Press Enquiries please contact Vicky Jones on 0121 377 88 99 or email vjones@mercian.org.uk.