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partnership working
Combating money
problems
“I cannot compliment you enough on a
personal level for helping me through what
was a most difficult and stressful period of
my life – thank you.”
Client, Cornwall CAB
The Benefits and Money Advice Service
(BMAS) is celebrating being awarded the
Best Partnership award from the Institute
of Money Advisers (IMA).
Delivered as part of The Royal British Legion’s Poppy
Support scheme, BMAS is a partnership between
Citizens Advice, the Legion, the Royal Air Force
Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) and Citizens Advice
Northern Ireland. It provides specialist benefits and
money advice in bureaux for existing and former
servicemen and women and their dependants.
Funded by the Legion and RAFBF, there are 43
full-time equivalent caseworkers based in 38
bureaux across the country.
The award winning project was set up in October
2007 and has, so far, helped 12,000 people with
financial outcomes worth over £32.7 million.
During 2009/10, clients were helped to claim nearly
£4.7 million in unclaimed benefits.
Carlisle CAB helped a former soldier who had
retired due to ill health claim disability and carer
benefits worth over £12,000 a year.
Richmondshire CAB assisted a serving soldier, who
is divorced with a child and is four months
pregnant, claim tax credits and child benefit of over
£8,000 per year.
During the same period, debts worth £13.7 million
were written off and £1.8 million other gains,
including grants from the Legion’s Poppy Funds
scheme. As well as grants, clients can benefit from a
wide range of other help from the Poppy Support
scheme, including short and long-term care, travel,
and household repairs to help elderly veterans
remain independent in their own homes.
Middlesbrough CAB helped a 35 year old client
with multiple debts of over £74,000. Claiming
benefits increased their income by £6,760 per year,
meaning his partner could give up her part-time job
to care for their disabled son. Successfully applying
for bankruptcy gave the client a fresh start and
financial stability.
North Liverpool CAB helped a 74 year old client in
poor health and with multiple debts totalling nearly
£11,000. As well as successfully applying for a debt
relief order which wrote the debts off, the adviser
helped him with benefit claims increasing his annual
income by £7,000 per year plus £2,300 in housing
and council tax benefit.
It’s not just about maximising incomes and
negotiating with creditors, BMAS caseworkers work
closely with other organisations such as Age UK,
Shelter and Combat Stress, to ensure a specialist
and holistic service is provided: Leatherhead and
Dorking CAB helped a client who had been
diagnosed with mesothelioma, as a result of being
exposed to asbestos, claim compensation of
£11,505 as well as helping him with a claim for
industrial injuries disablement benefit.
A client suffering with dementia had recently signed
up to a credit agreement to purchase solar panels
for his property, at a cost of £6,000. Cornwall CAB
successfully terminated the contract due to the
client’s lack of mental capacity and got his deposit of
£1,500 returned to him.
During 2009/10 the average number of issues
BMAS advisers helped each client with was 5.1,
compared to 3.4 for the Citizens Advice service
overall. The complexity of cases means over four
times as many contacts needed to be made with
third parties to resolve clients’ problems, in
comparison to the service as a whole.
6 the Citizen summer 2010