• Financial Wellbeing is designed to improve the financial capability of West Cumbrians on low incomes, empowering people to break the cycle of debt.

The programme funds part-time Financial Wellbeing Officers at Citizens Advice Copeland and Citizens Advice Allerdale, who provide one-to-one financial health checks, develop online tools to help people manage their money and promote financial wellbeing through community networks.

Focusing on equipping people with the skills to manage their finances, the project does more than just solve immediate hardship issues.

“What is different about the Financial Wellbeing project is that it is preventative. We provide empowerment and information to help people help themselves and stop getting to crisis point,” said a Citizens Advice team member. “Importantly the project helps to break down barriers to discuss personal financial issues.”

Since Financial Wellbeing was launched in 2020 the pandemic and cost of living crisis have exacerbated financial hardship.

Shelley Hewitson, CEO of Citizens Advice Copeland, said: “For those just about managing we have been offering financial support such as food and fuel vouchers. The complexity of cases we are dealing with
continues to increase. This project acts as an introduction to our more specialist services.”

Another project funded is Money Mentors, delivered by Groundwork NE & Cumbria, which trains mentors to help people take control of their own finances.

And Whitehaven Egremont and District Credit Union, together with the two Citizens Advice branches, have been funded to run financial education programme in West Cumbria schools. Read more about this here.