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 we 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 ways in which someone can receive immigration advice

Route 1)
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 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 an immigration situation or he will signpost/refer if the immigration issue is deemed too complex for OISC 1.

Our community space 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.

Route 2)
You can call our triage line on Mondays between 11.00-12.00.

Number 02079 214205. Press option 2 followed by option 1 to speak to an immigration advisor. If the phone is engaged, you can leave a message with your name and number and a brief overview of their situation, and an advisor will get back to you on the same day/next day. Unfortunately, due to limited capacity we will not be able to answer the phone or respond to messages that are sent outside the triage hour.

If you have any questions, please contact Sam (immigration Advisor) at 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 420