Volunteer Debt Adviser

What will you be doing?

Cambridge Money Advice (MAC) provide free regulated debt advice to people living in and around Cambridge. Founded in 2005 as a response to the growing need we have now helped hundreds of people recover from places of despair to hope as we have helped them regain control of their finances. As members of Community Money Advice (CMA) we are one of over 150 centres offering free debt advice across the UK. As a volunteer debt adviser you will always work with another adviser meeting our clients face to face at our office in Barnwell Baptist church gathering information about the financial situation of our client. Occasionally we also use Zoom for our clients and our team meetings. Nearly all meetings are daytime week days.  You will use our bespoke database and will communicate by letter, email and telephone with clients and creditors. All our client data is held securely and we also require you to protect our clients confidentiality at all times. Working within the guidelines of debt advice you will build up a picture of the clients situation and then offer them various possible solutions. You will then help them to implement a suitable solution.  You will continue to meet with and support the client over a period of months and sometimes years as their situation is resolved. We try whenever possible to keep the same pair of advisers working with a client as the rapport develops as clients often disclose some very painful issues.  Each volunteer at MAC is unique and the time they are able to give varies but we are looking for someone who will be able to undertake work for somewhere between 4 and 10 hours a week but this may not necessarily be each week as we schedule meetings to fit everyone alongside meetings there is also follow up work to do. Most advisers support 3 or 4 clients at a time. Obviously if you have more time available we would be pleased to have you working with us for more hours.  Debt advice follows a simple accredited process which you will be taught in the training sessions by CMA, we will also provide you with in house training on the systems and good communication and listening skills. Following initial training you will work closely with more experienced debt advisers to develop a fuller understanding and you will begin to see how the basic principles are applied. All of the advisers are also supported by the Centre Manager and Trustees and also have access to additional resources via CMA and a training programme called Wiseradviser.  Updated 27Aug 24

What are we looking for?

A successful adviser needs to have good listening skills and to be able to feel compassion they must be non-judgemental. You will need to have a passion to improve people's situations and resilience as you hear their stories. You will need to be competent in basic computer packages such as word and gmail and if possible excel. You need an eye for detail and to be numerate. You will need good written and verbal communication skills. You will need to be able to take the principles of debt advice and apply them to each situation. There will be times when you will need to seek advice and spend time considering other possibilities. You will need to always remember that what we are doing is to help our clients and sometimes this may mean reaching a solution takes a long time or may take several attempts. You will enjoy working collaboratively and will be confident speaking with people at all levels. As a regulated advice agency we must follow a number of policies and procedures which you will need to read understand and follow. We take volunteers from many different background of employment, at present we have some with previous financial experience, some scientific and some who have been in education. We will look at what you have done previously to see evidence that you can do this type of work.  You may find it helpful to have experienced debt issues yourself. If you have previously worked within other advice agencies or have experience working with people in difficult situations this will be very helpful but we will provide the training if you have the other skills required. When we take on an adviser we ask that they commit to work with us for at least 2 years, this is because of the time and financial input we need to put into training an adviser. We will endeavour to use each of our volunteers in such a way as to best use their skills and to help them develop further. We value our volunteers and will do all we can to make their time with us as successful as possible for all involved.  A debt adviser needs to have strong personal resilience. We are working with people who have complex needs and whose situations can be very distressing.  You will also need patience - with clients who are unable to attend, with companies who do not respond and with those who do! Achieving a good outcome for our clients is why we are here, this can take months or years but as long as a client is responding we stick with them. 

What difference will you make?

Below are some anonymous client quotes which we collected recently. The work of debt advice can be complicated and even at times frustrating but to be able to see the change for our clients in how they feel about themselves and their situation makes it worthwhile. People who are in serious debt feel ashamed and cannot imagine things can be resolved with our help they regain hope. You will see tears, frustration and anger, and then you will have the joy of the breakthrough into success.  "I am very happy with the help I received from MAC. I found them to be very professional and helpful. They helped me enormously in dealing with my creditors when things were very difficult. Being in debt when you cant pay it back causes an enormous amount of stress, anxiety and depression, and impacts on relationships/ breakups and homelessness. I'm sure that MAC have prevented suicides because of their work in helping people in debt." "Without exception, I have found all of MAC's advisors to be warm, friendly and consistently supportive. There is never the slightest sense of being judged or looked down on, so that what once seemed an insurmountable problem has become manageable and painless. I cannot praise these people too highly." "Just having the pressure taken off; you guys are wonderful; and undoubtedly literally save lives. The big companies really know how to impose so much stress you can’t think straight and just go under. You guys just hold people up enough that they can at least see the shore; thank you" Your work will be transformative to our clients. Be aware working with MAC may also transform you as you observe situations and painful situations you may not have done before. Take a look at our annual reports to see some detailed client case stories.