Our digital debt advice service wins three awards
The National Debt Advice Helpline, which is run in partnership with the Money and Pensions service (MaPS), won 2 silver awards and Hannah Walsh received the Adviser of the Year accolade.
The National Debt Advice Helpline was established in 2023 to address the ever-increasing numbers of the UK population who are struggling to manage their money and debts. According to The Money Charity’s recent data, the UK population is managing debts totalling £1,843.9 billion.
333 people per day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England and Wales between November 2023 and January 2024 – one person every four minutes and 20 seconds.
With more than eight-years of experience in delivering digital debt advice projects from our Caerphilly Contact Centre, CACBG was awarded the MaPS contract to deliver full debt advice. The demand for debt advice meant that the service grew significantly and expanded to include a Debt Relief Order (DRO) Hub. In its first year, our staff helped almost 29,000 people.
The service received silver awards at the Welsh Contact Centre Annual Awards in the categories of Specialist Team 1: Customer and the Best Adviceline/Helpline. The awards celebrate excellence and innovative practice from individuals and companies across Wales.
Specialist Debt Adviser Hannah Walsh received the Adviser of the Year award. The judges were impressed with how she supported a client who was contemplating ending his life as he was struggling with debts totalling £72,000.
David (not his real name) had a gambling addiction which led to his marriage breaking down and the loss of his job, pension and home. Using her training for dealing with this situation she discovered that David had considered a plan to end his life. Hannah assured David that if he could be supported with his debts, then he would be in a much better place. Through ongoing casework, Hannah was able to build up a trusted rapport with David and changed his mindset so that he felt able to explore his debts and understand what debt solutions were available to him.
David decided to opt for a debt write-off option with each of his creditors instead of pursuing bankruptcy. With months of support, all ten of David’s creditors were able to write-off all of his debts and he was now able to look for work and had a more positive outlook on his future.
Lisa McLain, Head of Digital Operations, said: “We are immensely proud of the staff who give the people we help the right advice, at the right time to improve their overall wellbeing.
“During the first year of delivering the digital debt advice service by phone and webchat, we learnt many lessons and implemented improvements and changes to meet the changing needs of our debt clients.
“This included the creation of a Debt Relief Order Hub, which focuses on supporting people applying for a DRO to allow them more time to resolve their debts with their creditors through our ongoing support.
“This project is seen as the “gold standard” of service by National Citizens Advice and is a model of best practice which can be shared with others.”
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Notes to Editors
- Citizens Advice Caerphilly Blaenau Gwent is the largest Citizens Advice service in Wales.
- We are part of the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across Wales and England, which includes the Citizens Advice national charity.
- We deliver free, independent, confidential and impartial advice, available to all regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age or nationality.
- We have more than 200 employees who have been expertly trained to deliver services throughout Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and several UK-wide services.
- We have offices in Caerphilly, Bargoed and Risca and operate drop-in services from a number of our partners’ sites.
- From our Caerphilly Contact Centre we deliver multi-channel services across England and Wales for national Citizens Advice, Welsh Government, The Trussell Trust and the Money and Pensions service. A full list of our services is available here.
- During 2023/24 we helped 10,190 from across Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent, resolved 69,363 problems, increased income by £6,970,256 and wrote off 1,954,461 of problem debt.
- The Money Charity, The Money Statistics May 2024, https://themoneycharity.org.uk/money-statistics, date of access: 2023.06.03
- Find more about Citizens Advice Caerphilly Blaenau Gwent on our website.
- To get advice online or find your local Citizens Advice, visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk
- For all press and media enquiries please email comms@cacbg.org.uk
