More opportunity to seek advice with outreach work

The project will include outreach advice services in Locks Heath and Portchester and also a home visiting service.

This means that the wider community in Fareham will have more access to advice.

For the next 12 months, advisors will be at Locks Heath Library every Tuesday and Portchester Library every Thursday, from 10am until 2pm.

Biddy Mayo, the operations manager for the service said: ‘We know that there are people who find getting to our current service outlets difficult.

‘This might be because they are housebound because of illness, disability or caring commitments or because travelling is difficult because of a lack of public transport or a lack of ability to pay for transport.

‘We want to make sure that everyone in our community can access the advice they need.’

In 2015/16 the service helped 4,378 clients with 6,430 issues from its current outlets in Fareham town centre and at The Highlands Hub.

Deborah Stringfellow, the chairwoman of Citizens Advice Fareham, said: ‘Our recent community profile work concluded with a series of evidence-based recommendations, one of which was to consider a project to provide accessible advice to those in Fareham who may be unable to access our town centre/library-based service.

‘I’m delighted that we have gained funding for this project to address this need.

‘We are very grateful to the local Hampshire county councillors who have supported us.’

This new service will provide free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to people on their rights and responsibilities, either at the outreach locations or in their home.

The service will provide advice on a range of topics including budgeting, employment, debt, housing, and benefits.

For more information call 03444 111306 or go to farehamcab.org.uk.