Riverside Advice Cardiff – Helping a Family Affected by Debt

Riverside Advice is based in Cardiff and provides financial, energy and welfare advice, tailored to the client and delivered by expert advisers.  This support helps people in crisis situations to overcome their difficulties and regain stability.  BGET fund Riverside to deliver welfare benefits, housing, energy efficiency and debt advice services.

About the client

The client lives in their rented family home with her husband and four young children. One son has severe disabilities both physically and mentally. As a result, he is awarded both components of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) at the highest rate. The client’s husband gave up work to be the main carer for their disabled son. They jointly claim Universal Credit which is their principle source of income, alongside the client’s part-time job.

Over a period of time the family had accumulated debts and this was having a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing. One of their biggest arrears was £2,000 of unpaid council tax arrears. When lockdown restrictions were relaxed in 2020, Local Council recovery action restarted and the family were visited by enforcement agents. This made the client, her husband and children feel very anxious.

What support did they receive?

The client was at crisis point and sought help and support from Riverside where an Adviser worked with the client to determine how to resolve her debt situation. Together they agreed that a Debt Relief Order (DRO) would be the best option and an application was made.

• Riverside Advice successfully applied for a DRO on behalf of the client
• All debts were written off including the council tax arrears of £2,000
• Enforcement activities for council tax arrears were withdrawn

How did the client react?

“Thank you so much you don’t understand how grateful I am to you working so hard in these crazy times, I can nearly finally breathe”