Barnet Not Yet in City Hall's £4.7m Family Advice Scheme

Barnet is not one of the 12 boroughs where City Hall’s free family benefits advice scheme runs today. The £4.7m the Mayor of London announced on Wednesday 4 November will extend it to 19 boroughs, and the other seven “will be confirmed in due course”. So Barnet could still be named.

Enfield, Haringey and Brent, all on Barnet’s border, are already in the Family Financial Resilience Partnership. The others are Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, Greenwich, Croydon, Southwark, Lewisham, Ealing, and Barking and Dagenham. The release does not say how the next seven will be chosen, or how the money will be split.

The scheme puts free, independent advisers into Best Start Family Hubs and Children’s Centres. They cover benefits, housing, childcare, immigration, disability and employment.

Barnet has three Best Start Family Hubs of its own, though the council’s list of what they offer does not include benefits advice. It does say services can vary, so ask your hub what is available:

Where to get free advice in Barnet now

None of this depends on the City Hall money. Citizens Advice Barnet has a freephone helpline on 0808 250 5708, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3.30pm. Its advisers cover benefits, debt and housing, among other things.

It also runs free drop-ins around the borough. These are the dates it lists for the rest of this year:

A drop-in starts with a short assessment, and full advice may be booked for another day. The charity says volunteers run most of these sessions, so one may close early. It also asks people not to arrive before the start time.

The council points to other routes on its debt and money advice page:

• Check what you could claim: the Barnet Financial Calculator shows which benefits you may be able to get. The council says it is a guide only.
• BOOST: personalised benefit advice, plus help with jobs and skills. You can email boost@barnet.gov.uk or go in person, Monday to Friday, at Burnt Oak Library, 99 Watling Avenue, HA8 0UB.
• In a sudden crisis: the Crisis and Resilience Fund can help with essentials such as food, gas or electricity. Ring 020 8359 4242 for help with the form. People aged 55 or over are pointed to Age UK Barnet for this support, and families and adults under 55 to BOOST.

Barnet’s £1.8m in Pension Credit

A second pot of nearly £750,000 continues the Mayor’s work with boroughs and the data firm Policy in Practice. It targets claims for Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, disability benefits and Universal Credit. It also pays for improvements to City Hall’s Cost of Living Hub. City Hall says this could reach 32,500 households and bring them £15m. The release names no boroughs for it.

Barnet has already taken part in the Pension Credit campaign. City Hall’s table records 1,168 Barnet households contacted and a total annual impact of £1,824,031. That is 10th of the 26 boroughs with a published amount. Across all 27 boroughs listed, 37,922 households were contacted and the total is £40,863,318 a year.

The same table shows Barnet’s neighbours:

• Haringey: 3,192 households contacted, £4,060,383 a year
• Camden: 1,614 households contacted, £2,679,646 a year
• Brent: 2,520 households contacted, £2,047,636 a year
• Enfield: 1,501 households contacted, £1,779,050 a year

Harrow is not in that table. Barnet does not appear in City Hall’s tables for Attendance Allowance, which list 19 boroughs, or Healthy Start, which list 16. The page gives no reason, and the tables count only the City Hall campaigns, not everyone who has claimed. Policy in Practice says its figures are accurate as of December 2025.

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What City Hall says the money will do

In its first six months the partnership helped more than 6,000 families across the 12 boroughs secure more than £5.4m, City Hall says, though its notes to editors round that to £6m. The extension could help around 29,000 more families reach £18m over two years. City Hall also estimates that more than £4bn in benefits goes unclaimed in the capital each year, drawing on Policy in Practice’s Missing Out 2025 report.

Since April 2022, City Hall counts £108m reaching 170,000 households through four programmes:

• Benefit take-up campaigns: £52m to 55,000 households
• Advising Londoners Partnership: £43m to 98,000 households
• Advice in community settings: £7m to 11,000 households
• The family hubs scheme: £6m to 6,000 households

Sadiq Khan said: “I’m committed to doing everything I can to support Londoners with the cost of living and am proud that we have already helped over 170,000 Londoners claim more than £108m in financial support that they are entitled to. This money is making a big difference to help their daily lives and that’s why I’m providing further funding to ensure even more families on low incomes can get support.”

Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard, the Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice, said: “We know that so many Londoners are struggling to get by, yet are completely unaware or unable to access the financial support that is available to them. As winter approaches and concerns about covering bills increase, we’re delighted to be extending the work of the Family Financial Resilience Partnership to more boroughs so that even more families can access the support they’re entitled to.”

Nezahat Cihan, chief executive of the London Legal Support Trust, said the money “will enable families across the additional boroughs to access high-quality, specialist legal advice through our centres as part of a wider partnership that provides wrap-around services.”

Jonathan Mogford, who chairs London Citizens Advice, said: “Citizens Advice has deep and trusted links into London’s diverse communities, many of whom are impacted by hardship, the cost-of-living crisis, as well as housing and immigration challenges. So we are delighted to be working with the GLA for a further two years, expanding our services in Family Hub settings.”

“Delivering over £108 million directly into residents’ pockets is a powerful reminder of what collaborative, proactive action can achieve,” said Abigail Everett, head of client services at Policy in Practice.

The release’s local example is from east London, at Barking Learning Centre Community and Family Hub. Cllr Dominic Twomey, leader of Barking and Dagenham council, said the partnership supported 612 families there in its first six months. One parent helped at the hub said: “Knowing that someone is listening to me, taking my concerns seriously, and helping me find the right support has made me feel less alone during a very challenging time.”

What it means for you

For now, the announcement brings no new service to Barnet. The Citizens Advice helpline, its library drop-ins and the council’s calculator are the places to start. We will update this page when City Hall names the other seven boroughs.

If you are over State Pension age on a low income, Pension Credit is worth checking first. City Hall says it also unlocks help with energy and council tax bills, free NHS dental treatment, Housing Benefit for renters, and a free TV licence at 75 or over. Barnet’s own charges are on our council tax bands page, and the council recently signed a protocol promising earlier help on arrears.

The latest local jobless figures we have reported show 13,230 people on the claimant count in Barnet in September, up 370 in a month.