Live Webchat Toolkit

Live web chat

Financial capability toolkit

BD/JAN15/v1

This toolkit has been produced as part of Citizens Advice Financial Skills for Life.

Citizens Advice is an operating name of theNational Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Charity registration number 279057, VAT number 726020276, Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered number 1436945 England. Registered office: Citizens Advice, 3rd Floor North, 200 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4HD.
Providing financial capability over live web chat

Introduction

This toolkit is designed to help advisers integrate financial capability into debt advice offered via live web chat, by providing further information via the same digital channel. Advisers are welcome to provide tailored information to the client at their own discretion.

Subject information

The toolkit contains all the key information for the topics covered. The majority of each resource is made up of further online resources, accessed via live links. Advisers are encouraged to add and amend to their own copy of the toolkit as they see fit: any additional information that is given should be taken from an up-to-date and accurate source such as:

· The debt and money section of the Citizens Advice website.

· The Money Advice Service.

· Other online services as appropriate.

Advisers are encouraged to feed back any recommended online resources and activities they would want incorporated into the toolkit, so that it can be assessed and added it for use by their colleagues as appropriate.

The financial capability element of debt advice provided over live webchat aims to help prevent clients from re-entering a debt-cycle by learning how to harden themselves against the financial shock that led to their current debt situation. It seeks to do this via using a channel-biased approach to resources.

Contents
Action plan user guide for advisers / 5
1. Sudden unemployment / 6
2. Multiple hire purchase agreements / 7
3. A new baby / 8
4. Council tax arrears / 9
5. Payday Loans and doorstep lenders / 10
6. Relationship breakdown / 11
7. Losing a partner / 12
8. Delays in benefits / 13
9. Credit repair / 14
10. Checking benefit entitlements / 15
11. Reclaiming payment protection insurance (PPI) / 16
12. Generic online tools / 17
Evaluation guidance / 18
Appendix – Petra codes / 20

Toolkit user guide – advisers only

Recording Financial Capability (Citizens Advice only)

It is critical that advisers become familiar with the E20 advice issue codes (AIC) on Petra (see appendix).

For many advisers, they already provide financial capability within their existing debt advice model; this needs to be identified and recorded.

Integrating financial capability (all users)

There is no obligation to provide financial capability of any kind during the live web chat session itself. Any financial capability provided whilst in live-chat is at the adviser’s discretion.

We recommend that the toolkit is kept open – and on the contents page - in a separate tab during the live web chat. As a particular need or life-event becomes evident, you can select the appropriate tab from the contents page. This will hotlink to the appropriate page in the toolkit.

This information should be provided at the end of the web chat.

If the client has identified a clear cause of their debt, then choose a suitable resource from 1-8.

If there is no resource matching the cause of debt, or if there is no clear cause, then use a suitable resource from 9-12.

All resources have a prefacing blurb to end a webchat: this can be copy and pasted into the webchat as the close at the same time as copy/pasting the rest of the resource. As with the resources themselves, this constitutes guidance; advisers are welcome to amend and feedback on these pre-formatted texts.

The selection of the resource should be recorded on Petra via an E20 AIC.

Sudden unemployment

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about unexpected redundancy that I think would be useful to you both now and in the future.

This quick cash finder can sometimes be a bit of a shock when you use it, you might be surprised at how much you spend on little things without realising it.

This short money advice service video can also give you some ideas on cutting back your costs.

If you have the time to read it all, there’s a lot of very useful information on our website on how to make sure you get all the redundancy pay you are entitled to.

Many jobs have an increased focus on core skills than they used to, the National Numeracy website is a good one to test and work on things like numeracy, it is worth dipping in and out of whilst you look for new work.

We appreciate that sudden unemployment can be a stressful time, so if you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Multiple hire purchase agreements

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about having multiple finance agreements, that I think might be useful to you both now and in the future.

This loan calculator can give you some idea of what different loans can cost, taking things like interest rate and the term of the loan into account. Play around with it and see how it works.

This credit card calculator is very useful if you find that credit cards, including store cards, are hard to keep on top of.

If you want to understand the details of how finance types work, this page on our website has everything you need to know. It’s a bit of a complicated subject though, so I’d say it’s worth having this open on your computer whilst you call the Citizens Advice consumer service on 03454 04 05 06 or 03454 04 05 05 for a Welsh speaking adviser. Don’t worry, the calls to 034 numbers are charged the same way as 01 or 02 numbers. The advisers there can talk you through any explanation you might need and you don’t have to give any personal details if you don’t want to.

Finance agreements can seem really daunting as they seem to involve lots of numbers and equations. The National Numeracy website is a good one to test and work on your maths skills. You might be surprised at how quickly these numbers seem less intimidating.

We appreciate that finance agreements can be rather complicated, so if you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

A new baby

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information that I think would be useful to you and your new baby.

This baby costs calculator is a very useful tool when working out how much your new baby things will cost. You can play about with it by moving around the sliders. It’s a really simple and effective way to see where you can pull back money from one place and use it somewhere else.

Childcare can be expensive and difficult to organise. This cost of childcare calculator may be able to help.

This baby money timeline calculator can help you plan the costs you may not have already thought of for your first child.

If you have the time to read it all, on our website there is a lot of detailed information on maternity rights and pay. You might be surprised at what you’re entitled to.

We appreciate that having a new baby can often be a stressful time, so if you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Council tax arrears

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about how council tax works that I think would be useful to you both now and in the future.

Council tax can be difficult to understand. It’s worth knowing that there are lots of possible discounts that apply to you though, here’s one of our pages with a detailed list of what discounts are available. If you think you qualify, contact your local council to discuss this.

The PayPlan website has some great tips about budgeting for your council tax and avoiding arrears, or how to deal with them if they do build up.

We appreciate that council tax can sometimes seem rather complicated, so if you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Payday loans and doorstep lenders

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about short-term loans that I think would be very useful to you both now and in the future.

This loan calculator can give you some idea of what different loans can cost, taking things like interest rate and the term of the loan into account. Play around with it and see how it works.

If you want to complain to a payday loan company, here is a template letter you can use. Just fill in a few details and our website will use these to write a letter for you that will be ready to print off and send.

One thing we often recommend for small, short-term loans is for our clients to go to a credit union. If you’re not a member of a credit union, here’s some information about how credit unions work. If you’re interested, here’s a website that will tell you where your nearest credit union is.

We appreciate that sometimes it may feel that loans such as these feel like the only option, so if you have any follow-up questions or want advice on other less well-known options, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Relationship breakdown

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about going forward without your former partner that I think would be useful to you both now and in the future.

Try using this divorce and separation calculator to balance your new financial situation.

Here are some really useful practical tips and information if you are separating or getting divorced. You can treat this as a sort of checklist of things you should do, or think about doing.

We appreciate that the breakdown of a relationship can be a stressful time, so if you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Losing a partner

Thank you for your enquiry. Citizens Advice offers free, confidential and impartial advice.

Your reference for this enquiry with us is xxxx

If you return to Citizens Advice via our online, telephone or face to face advice services, please quote this client reference.

I’ve had a further look at the information you’ve given me. As well as the advice you were given today, I would like to offer some more information about how to cope with the loss of a partner that I think would be very useful to you now and might be otherwise hard to find.