The team offers free, expert and confidential money advice and, throughout 2023/24, supported residents to maximise their income by helping them navigate benefit assessments and claims, appealing benefit decisions and debt management.

It also provided advice and information to 253 residents on debt issues and supported them in managing £1.2m worth of new debt.

In addition to their day-to-day support service, the team work alongside other services and have officers in place to help specific groups including those affected by cancer or other long-term health conditions, older people, families with children, job seekers and carers.

Some of the customer feedback received by the team has included one client saying: “The service was excellent and the staff member was extremely knowledgeable, caring and helpful. I would highly recommend the service.”

Another said: “The Welfare Rights Officer could not have been more helpful. She made an extremely stressful situation smooth and easy. My partner has Alzheimer’s and the officer helped complete a form for attendance allowance which we received. We could not be more grateful.”

A third client added: “As someone who had to retire due to cancer, and someone who has never been part of the welfare system, this service was invaluable to myself as it must be to people in a similar situation and lots of others from all walks of life who find themselves suffering illness.”

Chief officer of housing and employability, Peter Barry, said: “We know how big an impact the cost of living crisis has had on our residents and we are really keen to ensure that help is available where possible. With Working4U Money having a success rate of 88% for benefit claims submitted this shows how worthwhile this service is.

“Advisors work hard to ensure that people get the financial assistance which they are quite rightly entitled to and these examples show that this often comes at a time when people are already under pressure due to the likes of ill health. Taking this stress away from them is a huge relief.

“I would urge anyone who thinks that they might be missing out on benefits or who are struggling to manage debt to get in touch with the team as the support could be invaluable.”