Advice Week 2026: Advice Saves
AdviceWeek is here (October 19-23) and we’re joining AdviceUK to celebrate the impact of advice services and the people who deliver them.
Advice services are essential local services. They help people understand their rights, access the support they are entitled to and resolve problems before they become crises.
To ensure advice organisations can continue meeting growing demand, we must invest in the advice sector and its workforce.
As the People’s Champion in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, we know that when you’re struggling with issues like debt, energy bills, housing issues and benefits, getting the right advice at the right time can stop a difficult situation becoming a crisis.
This week we’re calling for greater long-term investment in the advice sector and workforce. Every day advice services help people resolve problems with debt, housing, benefits, employment, legal issues and more. But rising demand and insecure funding mean too many services are being forced to do more with less.
This week we’re also spotlighting the impact of our advice services in Hull and the East Riding. Advice gives people the right information and support to make informed choices, to understand their rights and to take back control of their lives. It can help someone challenge a wrong decision, deal with escalating debt, keep their home or access the benefits and other support they are entitled to.
In 2025/26 we helped clients with nearly 114,000 issues, and every £10 donated to our charity was worth £122 in financial outcomes for the people we helped. Our work also saved millions for housing providers and the NHS by preventing evictions and reducing the use of mental health and GP services.
Some of our recent success stories
We supported a couple, both living with mental health conditions, who had been living in a tent at a foodbank for six months.
Our adviser worked with the council’s homelessness team to secure support for a rent deposit and the first month’s rent once suitable private accommodation was found. The clients had previously experienced difficulties accessing housing, but they have have now successfully moved into their new home with financial assistance from the homelessness team.
We’re providing ongoing support to help one client apply for Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA), while both clients are being supported with Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims due to their health conditions.
Applications have also been made for financial assistance to help furnish their new home and obtain essential white goods. Should support not be available through the local authority or Department for Work and Pensions, further applications will be submitted to relevant charitable funds on the clients’ behalf.
Now that the couple are settled in private rented accommodation, applications for Crisis and Resilience funding have also been submitted, having previously been unavailable to them while homeless.
Both clients have expressed their gratitude for the support provided by Citizens Advice and to the foodbank for supplying essential items including towels and a duvet as they settled into their new home.
A couple approached our Welfare Rights Team as their Universal Credit had been stopped since May 2026. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said this was because of excess capital. However, the DWP had wrongly accused the couple of having four bank accounts which they did not have.
We explained to the DWP that these were not their accounts and their Universal Credit was reinstated and backdated for the missing months.
Our adviser noticed that Carer’s Allowance was being deducted from the Universal Credit calculation, a mistake which had been happening since September 2024. The DWP were notified of this and the couple received a back-payment of £11,044.64.
One of our specialist energy advisers helped a client with their pension credit eligibility and housing benefit – after they came to us for help with boilers!
The client wanted to check if they qualified any grants for their boiler replacement, and they were referred to the Energy Team for specialist support. They didn’t qualify, but it turned out they were eligible for Pension Credit of £135.60 per week, and Housing Benefit of £204 to cover their service charges for communal space cleaning.
The client stated the increased £700 per month will allow them to self-fund fixing their boiler and couldn’t believe there was so much money left on the table for them!
Recent feedback from our clients
It’s a supportive, empowering service.
They are knowledgeable in so many fields and share this knowledge and advice freely. They are a lifeline.
I was so very worried when I came for your help/advice. I left feeling much more confident.
Thank you all (to all staff I’ve spoken with and yourself) again for your support and kindness, it takes special people to do what you do – making a difference in the world. Thank you!
The kindness and non-judgemental attitude were very welcome and something I will never forget.