New partnership launched to strengthen community-based debt advice

Our partnership hopes to…

Improve access to effective, community-based debt advice for Black, minoritised and marginalised communities who are pushed into debt and financial insecurity by structural inequalities. The project will generate learning to support more sustainable investment in these approaches for the future.

Key information

• Partners: Rooted Finance, Citizens Advice Southwark, the Financial Inclusion Centre and Resolve Poverty
• Duration: 2.5 years
• Programme: Financial foundations for adult health

Background

Debt and financial insecurity have a well-evidenced impact on people’s health and wellbeing. Financial stress can worsen mental and physical health, while poor health can make it harder to manage finances, engage with services, or seek help early. For many people, this creates a cycle that is difficult to escape.

Evidence consistently shows that structural inequalities across society shape who is most likely to face poverty and problem debt. These inequalities mean Black, minoritised and marginalised communities are more likely to be pushed into deeper and more persistent poverty and into problem debt. They also shape how people access advice and support.

The way services are designed and delivered can create additional barriers to accessing help. These barriers can include issues of trust, stigma, gaps in cultural understanding and previous negative experiences with statutory systems. This makes culturally informed approaches especially important, helping to build trust and ensuring services respond to the realities of the communities they are intended to support.

Access to free, high-quality debt advice is therefore crucial. Community-based debt advice plays an important role because it is often delivered in trusted local settings, shaped by an understanding of local needs, and better able to respond to people facing multiple and intersecting challenges.

National policy increasingly recognises the links between financial insecurity, health and wider inequalities. The Child Poverty Strategy (pdf), the Financial Inclusion Strategy and the NHS 10 Year Health Plan all point to the need for earlier, preventative support that helps people stay financially stable and well.

Despite this, community-based debt advice remains under-resourced and poorly understood. Funding is often short-term and fragmented, and services are frequently judged using volume-based measures. This can be at odds with the time, flexibility, and relational support needed to support people effectively and prevent problems from escalating.

How this project will work

The project is delivered by Rooted Finance and Citizens Advice Southwark, working in Southwark and neighbouring London boroughs. Both organisations have long-standing experience supporting people facing complex debt problems and understand the realities of working across London in different communities where financial insecurity, poor health and wider pressures often overlap.

Support is built around holistic, one-to-one debt advice and ongoing help. Advisers work alongside people to access benefits, debt relief, and emergency support, and to speak directly with creditors to agree on realistic, manageable solutions. This hands-on advocacy is often what helps reduce immediate pressure and gives people the breathing space they need to stabilise their situation.

Advice is delivered face-to-face wherever possible, alongside outreach and referral pathways developed with local groups and community organisations. This helps reach people who may not feel able or comfortable using mainstream services and ensures support is needs-led, culturally appropriate, and shaped by the communities it serves.

Alongside delivery, learning and evaluation partners, the Financial Inclusion Centre and Resolve Poverty will work with delivery partners to understand the value of different community-based debt advice approaches and how they are experienced by the people they are designed to support.

This brings together people’s voices and experiences with insight from service data to understand what supports access, builds trust, and makes a difference for people experiencing financial difficulty. It will also help show how early relational support can reduce the risk of problems escalating and ease pressure on wider support services.

Aims of the partnership

The partnership aims to deliver effective community-based debt advice that works better for Black, minoritised and marginalised communities who are more likely to be pushed into poverty and problem debt due to structural inequalities.

The focus is on helping people reduce financial stress, stabilise their finances, and feel supported as they deal with complex and often changing circumstances. By offering timely, ongoing support, the project aims to reduce the harm caused by debt and support people’s wellbeing over time.

Alongside delivery, the partnership will share learning to help funders and decision-makers better understand what effective community-based debt advice looks like in practice, and why flexible, preventative support matters for people and public services.