Available advice
We provide free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or nationality.
Our expertise covers:
- Your money
- Benefits
- Employment
- Tax
- Debt
- Your family
- Family
- Health
- Housing
- Education
- Your daily life
- Communications
- Consumer affairs
- Travel
- Your rights and responsibilities
- Discrimination
- Civil rights
- Immigration
- Legal system
Complex enquiries require us to contact third parties on a client's behalf (subject to confidentiality rules). We also contact other agencies for expert advice and work in partnership with, for example, the Surrey Welfare Rights Unit, the Surrey Law Centre, local solicitors and specialists.
If you are unsure whether we cover your issue, give us a ring - we'll be pleased to tell you if we can help.
Interpreter service
We can provide help in, for example, Cantonese, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin and Punjabi.
You are welcome to bring someone with you to interpret or help you communicate with your adviser.
Outreach projects
We also seek to help people by establishing a presence in the local area:
- Mental Health Outreach Project. The project, supported by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, aims to provide a full CAB service to clients with mental health problems who live, work or are a hospital in-patient in the borough of Epsom and Ewell. You can contact the project on 01372 747220. The Project is staffed by one full-time and one part-time adviser.
- Epsom County Court Desk.The Epsom County Court Desk is staffed each Tuesday morning by trained advisers from Epsom, Leatherhead, Sutton and Wallington Citizens Advice Bureaux. Most of the advisers are volunteers and their aim is to assist clients who face losing their homes as a result of action by building societies, banks and landlords. Epsom & Ewell CAB provides the administrative support through funding obtained from the Office of Communities and Local Government, via Epsom & Ewell Borough Council Housing Department.
Our successes
We cannot reveal details of individual cases but last year we were able to:
- Process 7,632 client contacts
- Contact 3,412 third parties on behalf of clients
- Make gains for our clients - last year all bureau work achieved gains of almost £247,000, including backdated benefits
- Achieve an 80% success rate in helping clients avoid repossession of their homes through the Epsom County Court Desk
- In October 2006 we secured a further 3-year grant from Reaching Communities, Big Lottery Fund, to enable us to continue with the very successful Mental Health Outreach Project.
Social policy
As well as providing advice to clients, an important service of Citizens Advice is the identification of the many incidents of injustice that come to our attention.
We:
- Identify and record specific issues of injustice
- Take up local issues with relevant agencies and companies
- Keep in close contact with our MP - Chris Grayling
- Network with other CAB bureaux to address wider issues
- Work with Citizens Advice at a national level to influence MPs
- Also work with Citizens Advice at a national level to influence agencies and businesses about unfair practices.
We take care to ensure these activities do not jeopardise client confidentiality.
Geography
Our focus is the people that live and work in the borough of Epsom and Ewell.
Here are some other, local CABs that might be closer to you:
We can't help with...
We regret we cannot provide business advice.
We cannot provide specific financial advice, however, we are happy to help you with financial problems.
Our ability to help landlords is limited to advising on landlord and tenant's rights.