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CHRISTMAS 2016

For many of our clients, Christmas is a double-edged sword. Of course, many will be looking forward to spending time with family and friends and enjoying all that the festive season has to offer. But for others, it will be a time of increased stress and worry.

Most of us struggle in one way or another with the extra financial burden of Christmas. Surveys suggest that around a quarter of us borrow money to spend on Christmas and over 3 million people this Christmas will still be paying off debt from last Christmas. But for many of our clients, the pressure to spend money on presents and tinsel is just the tip of the ice-berg; their problems are more fundamental - a pretty Christmas tree is the least of your worries if you’re concerned you won’t have a home in which to put it up!

That's why we founded Crosslight, and why we're so passionate about what we do. Because once you get past the baubles, the cynical Christmas advertising (those animals would wreck that trampoline surely!), the mince pies and the Christmas sweaters (guilty), at the heart of the Christmas story is a message of hope. Hope of a new light, a new beginning, a new relationship, an eternal promise. It's the same hope we try to model in Crosslight, the same hope that inspires our incredible volunteers to give up so much of their time, and the same hope that we pray inspires all of you this Christmas.

From all at Crosslight, thank you so much for your continuing support, and Happy Christmas.

Our first (and seventh) year!

This Christmas, Crosslight is celebrating its first (and seventh) birthday. Crosslight was founded in December 2009, but twelve months ago we also became an independent charity for the first time - so we get to celebrate two birthdays!

Our first twelve months of standing on our own feet have been incredible. We've been privileged to have continued to receive the unflinching support of all of our partner churches as well as first time grants from a number of trusts. But more importantly, we have been hugely encouraged by the support of many of you, both practically and financially. We have helped more people than ever before, and encountered some of the most complex and difficult problems we've ever come across. Unfortunately it never seems to get any easier, and the need to raise funds to facilitate our work never stops, but we've all been hugely encouraged by our first twelve months, and hope that we will be able to rely on your support and generosity in year two and beyond.

In the last 12 months....

	675 Apointments Held		316 New People Helped		96% Client Satisfaction

	£2.1m Total Debts Managed		£3.53 Average Weekly Disposal Income		79% Clients with Priority Arrears

A changed life

All too often, we don't hear back from our clients once we have helped them to resolve their debts, and we always like to think that's for the right reasons. But recently we heard back from one client we first saw five years ago which really brought home to all of us why we work with and volunteer for Crosslight. This is an edited version of her letter.

“I had lost a partner and then I lost my best friend. Burying two people close to me was not easy. When one is in a lot of emotional pain, struggling and feeling abandoned it's hard to maintain good relationships, so you find yourself going through it all alone. I was in and out of work and debts had built up over times of unemployment. The financial stress can be overwhelming. I was not in a good place in my life.

“In times like this one can feel very isolated, one’s friends and family often don't have the emotional strength to stand by and offer any form of support. Who to reach out to when you reach rock bottom is a painful question. I reached out for help. I found Crosslight.

“Crosslight really helped me get back on my feet, helped me budget, helped me deal with my debts. Thanks to Crosslight I never lost my flat, my landlord stood by me. The lights stayed on. The debt agencies stopped calling (they had called every day over Christmas, threatening, scary messages about bailiffs arriving to empty my tiny home).

“I am grateful for the support I got from Crosslight, the patience, the attention to detail, the consideration. The free budgeting course through the church. The quality advice and simply knowing they would stand by me solidly from day one. Crosslight became family and friend and stood by me.

“It's been 3 years since my bankruptcy and life is back on track. I'm working and enjoying life again after a really tough struggle. After the bankruptcy was over, it took some time to re-establish my confidence. When you have lost everything, you have nothing to lose and suddenly a new fearless energy unveils itself... what have I got to lose... go for that new career! Go for the new fitness challenge! Go forward, keep moving forward, things can only get better.

“The company I work for has given me full responsibility for the budget of almost £100,000 in full faith. I carry the company card for the business. Crosslight helped me develop a skill in budgeting and a confidence in budgeting too. The company may never know why I am so good at budgeting.

“Everyone deserves a second chance; life is a precious gift. I am now shifting from being a survivor to thriving and things are going really really well. Thank you Crosslight.”

MARY'S* STORY

Mother and daughter spared eviction

Mary is a single mother who came to us for help after poor health meant she had to stop work. She had a shared ownership home, in which she had a mortgage to buy a 25% share of the property and paid rent to a housing association for the other 75%. She fell behind on both her mortgage and rent and was threatened with eviction.

The bank agreed to hold off eviction several times, only thanks to our intervention to give her a chance to sell the property and repay her debt. Despite strenuous efforts, it took over two years to sell the property. The proceeds of the sale were not even enough to clear her mortgage and so the sale was only able to do so after we persuaded her creditors to accept less than the full sum owing and the estate agent to cut their fees to enable the sale to go through.

After the sale Mary and her daughter were forced to ‘sofa surf’ with friends and relatives until we were able to prove to the council that she had not made herself intentionally homeless by selling her home, but had been obliged to do so by her bank. The council then provided her with temporary accommodation in Luton.

In 2016 we helped Mary successfully apply for a Debt Relief Order, and obtained a grant for her to cover the cost of this. At the same time, she took up an offer by the council to be rehoused in Scotland, thus enabling her and her daughter to make a truly fresh start.

*names have been changed

Money Course Essentials workshops proving a great success

We've had great feedback on our new Money Course Essentials workshops. We piloted these in July 2016 and have been running 3 workshops a month from September onwards. We're excited to have been given the opportunity to start running workshops in Wormwood Scrubs prison, for prisoners due to be released shortly.

The workshops last 2 ½ hours. Participants learn:

how to build and manage a household budget, including identifying and prioritise essential expenditure such as rent, council tax and utility bills, and setting money aside each month for this
how to use piggy banking to put money for essential bills into a separate account each month as soon as they receive their income and money for one-off items such as Christmas into a savings account

30 people have attended a workshop so far and the reception has been very positive:

the average guest course rating has been 4.4 out of 5.
100% of guests said they would recommend the course to a friend.
90% 'felt better equipped to manage their own finances'
91% said they were 'likely' or 'very likely' to put the learning into practice

Guest comments include:

It was a really amazing course, very clear and practical.
The trainers were knowledgeable, kind and welcoming. I feel a lot more confident about my ability to change my habits with the resources.
I like that anything I was not sure of was explained in a way that I can understand. I feel unburdened and more relaxed.
I need to get my partner on board!

Reduced benefit cap will hit London especially hard

In November, the government reduced the benefits cap to £23,000 for families in London and £20,000 elsewhere. Because the cap hits those with high housing costs worst, Londoners have been the worst affected. It's estimated over 16,000 households in London with 1-4 children will be impacted by the cap. Couples stand to lose £25/week but families with three children in private rented accommodation could lose as much as £100/week.

Many families who are currently just coping risk being pushed into debt by the benefit changes and we anticipate a further increase in demand for our help. To put the cap in perspective, a typical Crosslight client has less than £5/month surplus income, so the loss of £25/week benefits would be virtually impossible to manage.

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Crosslight Advice · HTB Brompton Road · London, UK SW7 1JA · United Kingdom

Crosslight Advice is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (No. 1163306) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 715066). Crosslight is part of the national Community Money Advice network of debt advice agencies and is a member of AdviceUK. Crosslight holds the Advice Quality Standard.