Crosslight’s Christmas 2021 Newsletter
A snapshot of 2021
This year continued to be challenging for all of us. As expected, we have experienced a steady uplift in demand throughout 2021 and are now seeing new enquiries and appointments at record high levels. The total number of new clients has risen by 53% from this time last year, and we have seen an 80% increase in demand to our service in the last three months compared with this time last year.
Crosslight supported over 1,800 people with debt advice and money education over the past 12 months; more than ever before. We are proud of the Crosslight team’s resilience in adapting to different models of working throughout constantly changing restrictions this year, as well as their ability to show such love and support to our clients when they have needed it most.
82% of clients tell us that we have helped resolve their main debt issue and 73% tell us their financial outlook has improved with our support.
We worked with clients to increase their annual income by over £3.3m in total.
And we helped resolve over 4200 individual issues including 70% of our clients’ priority debts.
Further, we have extended our service provision to include specialist benefits advice and expanded our ‘Open Advice’ programme to offer support to more clients that don’t require in-depth casework. As highlighted in the autumn newsletter, we have successfully launched a brand new ‘Money Course’ online platform to offer clients further financial education alongside our debt advice provision.
"Crosslight's help has truly been life-changing for me. I really feel my life has now turned a corner and I have a better future."
What to expect in 2022
Due to factors such as the furlough scheme ending, the Universal Credit reduction, inflation, and cost of living increases, such as with fuel costs, we expect to continue to see heightened demand for our vital service throughout the next year, particularly in the first quarter of 2022.
We will continue to offer both telephone appointments for the foreseeable future, particularly in light of the recent additional COVID-19 restrictions. While telephone appointments can be extremely effective, those with communication issues or who cannot read or write have struggled to express themselves and/or relay the contents of correspondence easily. To balance our face to face and remote models, we will boost the capacity of branches through more partnerships and satellites as well as employ technology more widely, including the introduction of video appointments next year.
With The Money and Pension Service research predicting an increase of up to 60% in the demand for debt advice to the end of 2022, we are already looking at sourcing further capacity for our Advice Services team who are dealing with a surge of new client enquiries.
This is why we are making a special request to the Crosslight community: can you volunteer with our Advice Services team?
We are looking for a number of volunteers to help our incredible Advice Services team as they support our new clients to access our services. This is not an advice role and there isn’t a lot of technical knowledge you’ll need to learn. Instead what is needed is a friendly and compassionate heart, and an ability to multi-task like a pro! If you can spare anything from a morning a week to several days a week and would like to make a real difference, we would love to hear from you. Please find more information about this volunteer opportunity here.
Please join us online for our Christmas celebration and reflection
We are delighted to invite all staff, supporters, and volunteers to join our online Christmas service on Monday 20th December at 7.00 p.m. for 45 minutes. Please join us for a time of reflection and stories from the past year as we look forward to Christmas. To join this online Teams event please follow this link at the time of the event.
Sandrine’s story
After escaping an abusive relationship and losing her business, Sandrine* faced multiple debts piling up over several years. She struggled with debt related to rent arrears, as well as gas and electric bills. Sandrine and her young daughter soon became homeless. She felt she had to hide herself from everyone, as the fear of her debts built up inside of her. “I always felt like I was trying to escape,” she recalls.
Sandrine worked with another agency to support her in resolving her debts but unfortunately, she didn’t get the holistic support she needed. She didn’t have computer or internet access, and felt humiliated when she couldn’t complete the tasks they requested of her. “It felt I was being punished for not knowing how the system works.”
Fortunately, Sandrine was soon referred to Crosslight and has been working with an advisor for nearly 10 months. Her advisor managed to obtain a Debt Relief Order (DRO) to help clear her debts, as well as sort out manageable monthly payment plans to get her back on track. Additionally, her advisor discovered £3,000 of rent arrears was a mistake she was not liable for. We are working to appeal this decision, as well as on obtaining the backdated benefits she is entitled to. Sandrine is now in temporary accommodation in London. She feels less isolated, as well as calmer and more hopeful for the future.
“Everyone at Crosslight is so lovely and helpful. They constantly reassure me and allow me to relax. Every time I see my case manager, I get hope for my life. Her positivity is infectious - it changes my mood.”
*name has been changed
Thank you and Happy Christmas
We simply could not have continued providing our holistic service and financial education without our committed supporters and volunteers.
Thank you in advance for any donation you can make this Christmas, and we wish you all the best for the upcoming year.