Hartlepool advice service reopens to visitors after dealing with 1,200 pleas for help during lockdown

Citizens Advice Hartlepool has restarted some of its drop-in sessions at its Park Road offices after being closed to clients for three months.

During lockdown staff working mainly from home handled around 1,200 emails, webchats, and a limited number of face-to-face interviews.

Most have been around Universal Credit and employment issues linked to the Covid-19 situation.

And manager Joe Michna said he expects the service to be busier still as so-called payment holidays on things such as mortgages, credit cards and loans start to end.

He said: “During the last three months the two biggest areas of advice that we have been dealing with have been employment and workplace matters and also Universal Credit.

“Virtually all of the Universal Credit and employment and workplace advice requests related to Covid- 19.

"For employment and workplace issues, the biggest majority have been about the furlough scheme and redundancies.

“We now expect to see a large increase in debt related enquiries as the ‘payment holidays’ that have been available for people begin to come to an end."

All staff are now back in the office and a reduced number of drop-in sessions are running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am to 2pm.

Everyone attending them is required to wear a face mask and the interviews will be very brief with most people then receiving a call-back by phone.

No more than two clients will be allowed into the offices at the same time.

Mr Michna added: “We have undertaken a full risk assessment of our offices and we can provide a safe environment for both staff and clients.

“We are also aware that there are people who find it difficult to contact us via telephone and email and we now want to provide a better service for these people and make contact with us that much easier.

“We are hoping to resume the full schedule of drop-in sessions in the near future.”

The agency can be contacted by calling (01429) 408401 or 0300 3309005, emailing: [email protected] or visit www.citizensadvicehartlepool.org.uk

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