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A local charity helping people of all ages and backgrounds with the support of our amazing volunteers.

How Citizens Advice can help

Citizens Advice in West Sussex (North, South, East) gives advice and information to people for the problems they are facing. Our advice is free, confidential, independent and impartial.

We are providing support to people via face to face appointments, email, web chat and telephone.

If you are working with a member of the public who needs support from us, you can refer them to us directly by completing the referral form below. This particularly applies for those who are vulnerable and/or isolated. Please give as much information as possible so we can determine how best to help your client, and to prioritise appropriately.

You’ll also find links and general resources which may be useful for you to help your client directly.

We are experiencing exceptionally high demand for this service and we are doing all we can to respond in a reasonable time – please be patient.

Note: this service is not appropriate for very urgent or emergency matters.

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Extra resources for professionals

To enable you to help your client, you may find these links useful.

Breathing Space: information for professionals

Breathing Space is a new scheme which began on May 4th 2021. It gives people temporary protection from most types of debt collection while they take action to get on top of their debts.

People can apply for sixty days’ Breathing Space through a debt advisor. They must continue to engage with their debt advisor and not take out any new borrowing of more than £500 during this time. They’ll also have to continue to make certain types of payments, including ongoing housing costs, utility bills, and taxes.

Interest and fees will be paused on debts included in Breathing Space while these conditions are met.

People can only apply for Breathing Space once in a 12-month period.

Here we answer some specific questions you may have about how Breathing Space may affect someone you’re working with. We will add more as we have it.

How will it affect Council Tax?

Breathing Space cannot cover ongoing payments of Council Tax, if someone is not in arrears. Any portion of the Council Tax in arrears can be included in a Breathing Space application (but only the arrears portion).

If someone has received a reminder notice, Breathing Space will cover the unpaid instalments and the bill for the rest of the year. This is the same for business rates for sole traders.

How will it affect parking fines?

Parking tickets will be qualifying debts for Breathing Space. When a Breathing Space is approved, the creditors will not be able to take further action to enforce until the end of the Breathing Space.

Breathing Space does not apply to any driving related penalty issued by a Magistrates Court or for parking on a Red Route.

Information for Mental Health practitioners

If you are supporting someone experiencing a Mental Health Crisis, you can assist them to apply for a Mental Health Breathing Space. We at Citizens Advice cannot apply for these. There is a central unit for you to refer your client, and you should have been notified about this.

If your client is not experiencing a Mental Health Crisis, they can be advised to contact us in the usual way for full debt advice. This includes whether a Standard Breathing Space would be beneficial to their situation.

Crawley Connects

Crawley Connects offers quality specialist advice service to migrant communities in Crawley on immigration, domestic abuse, benefits and more.

It is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, and delivered by a small partnership of not-for-profit organisations, including Safe in Sussex, for practical support.

If you would like to refer someone you are working with to this service, please tick ‘yes’ on the form above.