Just weeks after Citizens Advice Barnet ended its welfare benefits service due to funding constraints, the charity warns that two more services will close or halve their capacity, Leïla Davaud reports

“We do our best to protect the community,” insists Daniel Bamford, CEO of Citizens Advice Barnet. Somberly, he sounds the alarm to the very people the independent charity was built for: “Right now, we are at risk of disappearing. If it were to happen, it would be incredibly difficult to rebuild. We need help.” 

This is the hard truth everyone at the local charity has been facing for months. David Rommer, lawyer and caseworker at Citizens Advice Barnet, explains: “Trust For London has funded a number of our services since 2014, until last year, when they announced they were no longer able to help us.” 

The organisation provides free advice and support to meet the needs of vulnerable people who are falling through the cracks in the administration. Every week, the staff welcome individuals who can’t afford a law firm to represent and defend them.

“We see people in all walks of life,” explains Susan Deal, a trained solicitor and caseworker for the benefits service that closed at the end of January. She joined Citizens Advice after the Barnet Law Centre closed due to financial constraints.

She adds: “Benefits are supposed to be a basic right but they are a tricky thing to navigate. Sometimes, it is the difference between having food on the table and starvation. It can happen to every single one of us out of nowhere and I don’t know where our clients are going to go now that this service has ended.” 

Volunteers are still able to give advice “but there is only so much they can do without a law degree,” says Susan. Previously, her legal knowledge and hard work helped a mother keep her home.

She says: “I assisted a client who was juggling work and childcare while on Universal Credit. She struggled for 21 months to cover her housing costs, partly because the system was confusing and partly because Universal Credit made errors. Things got so bad that bailiffs showed up at her door while her son was there.

“When I helped her apply for the benefits she was owed, they initially refused to pay because of a misunderstanding. But after fighting for her case, she finally received £17,500. That money saved her from homelessness. This case illustrates exactly why the benefit service at Citizens Advice is necessary.”

Heading for the same fate, the employment service issues a cry for help. David Rommer provides Citizens Advice’s legal support in the borough, including representing community members with employment issues in court, if required.

“Thankfully, we sometimes manage to resolve the matter before it gets to that point but it does happen,” he explains. “We deal with a certain number of complex cases related to national minimum wage or working time regulation not being respected, unfair dismissal, insolvency, sudden business closure, etc.” 

To the lawyer’s bewilderment, discrimination cases around pregnancy have tremendously increased in the last five years in Barnet. “Most of the time, employers claim the use of sick days related to the employee’s pregnancy as a deal breaker. Some pretend that the business isn’t good and they can’t afford their contract while proceeding to advertise the open position shortly after.” 

According to David: “the victims of such behaviour are often from Eastern Europe or African countries.”

His role is to ensure they are fairly represented at no cost. “I currently work with a client who was dismissed when she disclosed her pregnancy to her employer. The bigger issue is that her visa depends on her job, and the problem with her employer being resolved. She works for a care agency, and unfortunately, it is not an unusual type of case in this line of work.” David had to break the news to her: the service is set to close by the end of March. “She cried. There is nothing I can do at this time. If we don’t find a solution, she will have to try and find a low-cost law firm and probably face bills she can’t afford.” 

Meanwhile, the immigration and asylum service faces its own crisis. The charity says that casework capacity will soon be cut in half, significantly limiting the number of clients who can receive support navigating, for example, level 3 Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) matters.

The service helps with online immigration applications, nationality, citizenship and Indefinite Leave to Remain applications. A report from Citizens Advice Barnet states that between 2020/21 and 2024/25, the number of immigration problems the charity helped residents with “has more than doubled”. It also indicates that “despite the increasing demands for casework, its funding is in jeopardy”.

As Daniel Bamford states, “there is no perfect solution at the moment”.  While Citizens Advice Barnet looks for stable funding, the CEO is asking the community for help. He says: “People can get in touch using the fundraising inbox ([email protected]) if they can support us, whether that’s themselves or through an introduction to someone or an organisation they’re part of.”  

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