Research & Campaigns

At Citizens Advice Hull & East Riding we take our commitment to ensure that the voice of our community is heard and that real change can be achieved. We do this by recording the problems our community faces and regularly feeding our clients’ own experiences into national and local campaigns. We work with national Citizens Advice and our own local partners and stakeholders to ensure that trends and common issues are spotted and acted upon.

Our current areas of work include:

  • We’re gathering evidence on how age-related benefits are affecting younger clients – particularly the lower Universal Credit rate for under-25s and the Shared Accommodation Rate for under-35s.
  • We’re gathering evidence of how our clients and communities are affected by ‘digital exclusion’ – the inability of individuals to access, use, or afford digital technology and the internet, preventing full participation in modern society. We’re looking at a wide range of issues from health issues to resource deficits, lack of skills and confidence, and systemic ‘digital by default’ barriers.

We’re calling for reform of the child maintenance system

Every day, our advisers speak to parents who are doing everything they can to provide stability and security for their children after separation. But too often, the system designed to help – the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) – is falling short. 

We’ve published research that shines a light on the challenges parents face when trying to secure the financial support their children are entitled to, and sets out clear recommendations for change:

  • Faster and clearer processes, so parents aren’t left waiting for decisions or chasing updates. 
  • Stronger, more consistent enforcement, ensuring arrears are taken seriously and action is timely. 
  • Better communication and support, helping both parents understand their rights and responsibilities. 
  • A simpler system with fewer administrative hurdles – so children receive the support they’re entitled to without delay. 

How we made a splash with our three key asks of the Government

Our campaigning work ahead of the Government’s Autumn Budget in November attracted media attention as we laid out our three key requests of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, based on the experiences of our clients across Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Our Data & Insights Officer Jessica Smith produced a series of weekly blogs in the run-up to the Budget to highlight how the cost of energy and essentials is affecting our local communities, along with rising rental prices and the double-whammy of the two-child limit and the benefit cap.

Jess then represented Citizens Advice Hull & East Riding in a series of media interviews before and following the Budget, including with BBC Radio Humberside.

We also wrote to local MPs with our requests of the Government. Hull East MP Karl Turner wrote to the Chancellor on our behalf urging the Government to put improving living standards at the heart of the Budget, while Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Haltemprice, also shared our concerns.

Cover of Citizens Advice Autumn Budget 2025 submission

Following the Budget, Citizens Advice has welcomed the scrapping of the two-child limit and says that moves to address high energy bills will prevent hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in poverty, and help households across the country keep the lights on – but there’s still more to do to ensure every household can live a life free from poverty.

Our work was also in the spotlight after national Citizens Advice released the full Autumn Budget submission.

We provided the foreword to the Bill Affordability section, which was described as making the document “so much more compelling” by Citizens Advice Head of Public Affairs Laura Hutchinson. You can read it here from page 16.

Earlier campaigns

Government’s proposed reforms to health and disability benefits

From left, Citizens Advice Hull & East Riding Chief Executive Tracy Wharvell, MP for Kingston upon Hull East Karl Turner and Jess Smith, our Data & Insights officer, at our office in Hull

We’re often the first place people turn to in a crisis. We give people the knowledge and confidence to find a way forward – whoever they are, and whatever the problem.

We’re trusted, accessible and local, and our services improve financial wellbeing, mental health, and housing stability. This means our unique, real-time data gives a ground-level view of what’s happening in communities across Hull and the East Riding.

That’s why we’re working with local MPs including Karl Turner (Labour, Kingston upon Hull East) to share our insights into the effects of the Government’s proposed welfare and benefits reforms on their constituents.

Thanks to the hard work of our staff and volunteers, we’ve been able to provide Mr Turner with data that highlights a forecast £30m reduction in benefits to people in his ward under the proposed reforms. He has written to Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, highlighting the devastating effect the reforms would have on his constituents

Our data has also been presented to East Riding of Yorkshire Council Cabinet members and Jessica Smith, our Data and Insights Officer, was interviewed by BBC Radio Humberside about our findings (listen below).

We continue to work with our local MPs and key decision-makers, using evidence from our clients – and our research in our communities – to highlight local experiences and campaign for change.

Citizens Advice case study: Anita’s story – how cuts to disability benefits could impact millions

Child Poverty Strategy

In June 2025, we wrote to all our MPs regarding the governments forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy, to ask that they use their voice to ensure that the two-child limit and the benefit cap are scrapped in the strategy.

We are able to use local constituency-level data, and evidence forms completed by our advisers, to provide an even more compelling case to our MPs as to why they should scrap these policies in the strategy.