Advice and Advocacy

Advocacy and Advice - delivered by Citizens Advice Lindsey

I would like to thank you so much for giving

your time to us this afternoon. You were so professional and kind and I am so grateful for your quick understanding as you completed both application forms.”

They should call you Wonder Woman for all

the work that you’ve done for me.”

Just to say a big thank you for all that you are

doing and everything you have done, it has been very much appreciated.”

I have just received the letter from the

Tribunal, that’s great and a big relief. Many thanks again for all your help.”

About the Advocacy and Advice Project

The Advice and Advocacy Service delivery by Citizens Advice Lindsey offered

information, advice and advocacy services to over 50s in East Lindsey on a broad range of advice areas including but not limited to:

  • Maximising income, e.g. benefit entitlement
  • Support and guidance on welfare benefit appeals and the tribunal process
  • Managing money & debt related issues
  • Universal credit ( ‘younger’ older people)
  • Help with energy costs, e.g. switching providers
  • Disabilities and Healthcare and available financial support
  • State & private pension advice
  • State entitlements for older people
  • Tax, savings and investments
  • Inheritance
  • Bereavement
  • Lifestyle choices including volunteering

Citizens Advice Lindsey provides free, confidential and impartial advice and campaigns on big issues affecting people’s lives. Their goal is to help everyone find a way forward, whatever problem they face.

The role of their TED Adviser was to work specifically with older people aged 50 and over advising them on a range of issues including benefits, housing, consumer, debt and more. The Adviser worked from Citizens Advice Lindsey’s three main offices located at Mablethorpe, Skegness and Louth and also provided weekly drop in services at Mablethorpe Marisco Medical Practice and Spilsby New Life Centre and Horncastle Library.

At the Citizens Advice Service they are aware how much social isolation and loneliness can affect people. They also understand that a big contributor to this can be lack of spare income which limits the amount people can spend on social activities. To support people aged over 50 to maximise their income and offer a range of advice they delivered our services across community locations in East Lindsey and we set ourselves targets:

  • 160 beneficiaries will benefit from advice and advocacy
  • 80 beneficiaries (50%) will benefit from casework and specialist advice
  • 60 beneficiaries will benefit from focused events

The Advocacy and Advice team have worked closely with TED to create a Toolkit that gives an insight into creating, maintaining and evaluating a project such as this.

A Change in Delivery

From the 1st March 2020 and the onset of Covid-19, the Specialist Adviser (TED) noticed that attendance at the drop in sessions by older persons had started to reduce.

Living Allowance

The lady and her husband attended one of our offices in July 2019. They had both worked all of their life and now both had health issues

which affected their daily living and things were starting to become a strain.

Carers Allowance

We met at the Marisco Medical Centre, Mablethorpe. The gentleman lived with his mother, who has deteriorating health and was claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to help.

Role of Connectors during Covid-19

Covid-19 is an unprecedented situation affecting the lives of people across the globe, but which is particularly impacting on the older and those classed as “vulnerable”.

Just to say thank you for all the help that you

gave us in November. Very pleased to say that we both had a successful outcome.”

Thank you for all your help, I don’t know what I

would have done without you.”

I thank Citizens Advice for their help and feel I

can now cope on my own.”

It’s great to see all the services working

together to help older people like us.”

Trending now

Share This
Scroll to Top