Ensuring that everyone in Waterloo has access to high-quality advice when they need it

We provide a range of advice services in our local community, these are based from the Oasis Centre – 1 Kennington Road, SE1 7QP. All our advice services are free and independent.  

Debt
We provide an independent debt advice service that exists to help anyone struggling with unmanageable debt, whatever the cause. We are also part of Community Money Advice, a network of debt advice centres nationwide. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (ref 951099).

Together we can help you to work through a process of investigating your money issues and developing solutions that will help to resolve your debt issues.

We are here to help anyone struggling with debt and we deal with a wide range of issues from credit card debt, council tax arrears, utility bills, mortgage or rent arrears, through to threatened eviction or county court action.

The process starts by matching you with an advisor who will help you through the process. We then have an initial meeting to find out more about your situation and building a picture of your income and expenditure. Once we have a clear understanding of your financial situation we will discuss your options with you and together plan the best course of action. This could include a payment plan, debt relief order or bankruptcy if necessary

To refer someone or to make a self-referral please use our referral form at www.oasiswaterloo.org/referral. Please bear in mind, it may take us a while to get back to you and there may be a waiting list depending on current demand for the service. We will do our best to keep you informed of the progress of your referral.

Benefits
We can assist you in ensuring you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to and supporting if you need to appeal. This includes:

• Checking your eligibility for benefits and completing a benefits check
• Assisting with applications
• Completing mandatory reconsiderations
• Assisting with appeals and tribunals

We have particular experience in making claims, reconsiderations and appeals for Personal Independence Payment but can support with a wide range of benefit related issues.

We run our benefits advice service through a combination of drop-in sessions (details TBC when we reopen our community space after building works) and 1-1 appointments.

To refer someone or to make a self-referral please use our referral form at www.oasiswaterloo.org/referral an advisor will then be in touch. Please bear in mind, it may take us a while to get back to you and there may be a waiting list depending on current demand for the service. We will do our best to keep you informed of the progress of your referral.

Immigration
We provide a free immigration advice service registered at OISC level 1 (registration number N.202000134). The service is funded by the Trussell Trust and therefore aims to support those that are using a food bank or are in danger of needing to use one and live in or are connected to Lambeth or Southwark. We also aim to gain good working relationships with advice and support services in Lambeth, Southwark, and further afield. 

There are two routes by which someone can receive immigration advice from our service.

Route 1)  
You can advise them to come to our drop-in session. These run at the Oasis Centre, 1 Kennington Road, SE1 7QP on Tuesdays 1.30-3.30pm (drop-in is suspended for November 2022 due to high demand)  The drop-in functions as a triaging session. Meetings will last no more than 20 minutes and will be used to understand someone’s immigration situation but not to solve it then and there (please make this clear to any person that you signpost). Our Immigration Advisor will book follow-up 1-1 sessions at the end of these meetings to start to address their immigration difficulties or he will signpost/refer if the immigration issue is deemed too complex for OISC 1.

Our community space (once works are completed) has several free services including: clothes rail, a community fridge, refreshments and it is located in the same building as Waterloo Public Library. People using the immigration service are welcome to use any of these services whilst waiting for their appointment.   

This route is intended for those who do not have a close working relationship with people that they support. It might be that you do not have the time to gain a good understanding of their situation or that you do not feel comfortable asking questions about their immigration history.  

Route 2)
You can refer the community member directly to a 1-1 session. To do this you should fill out the referral form. The form is straightforward and should take 10-15 minutes max. The last question asks for details of the immigration issue. The more detail that you write the better. To do this it is best to directly ask the community member what specifically they need help with and write down their response.

Once the form is submitted, our immigration advisor will get in touch with them and set up a meeting.  Please note that it may take several meetings before immigration issues are resolved.  If it can be determined from the referral form that the immigration issue is too complex for Oasis’ level of regulation, our advisor will contact the community member to signpost/refer them to an appropriately regulated charity. This route is intended for referring yourself and for those who have a close working relationship with the person they want to refer.  

Referral form:

  https://bit.ly/waterlooimmigration

Someone should ordinarily be in touch with you within one week (7 days of a referral). UPDATE NOVEMBER 2022. Due to high demand we have paused appointments for new referrals to our service, check back to see when referrals are reopen. It may take several weeks to get an appointment.

If you have any questions or 

would like to get in touch contact Sam, our Immigration Advisor: samuel.forrest-sufrin@oasiswaterloo.org  

Housing
We are currently in the process of setting up a housing advice service, when this is set up we will be able to support with:

• Housing band appeals
• Supporting maintaining tenancies
• Supporting with advocacy for disrepair
• Advocating for repairs and maintenance of properties
• Preventing homelessness

Contact us
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us about any of our advice work please contact

advice@oasiswaterloo.org or call 020 7921 4205