If you are a housing adviser please visit this section for more information...
Getting advice about housing
Shelter offer written advice on private renting, deposits, problems with landlords, etc on their website. This allows you to search for housing advice by area, and to get the contact details of Shelter's local offices, which offer free advice and help with all types of housing problems. Shelter also run a free helpline for urgent problems on 0808 800 4444, open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 5pm at weekends.
In Wales, Shelter Cymru offer written advice on homelessness, finding a place to live, problems with landlords, etc on their website. They also offer advice by telephone on 0845 075 5005 and can answer email enquiries via the website. They run a network of local offices and projects and you can use the link to find the nearest one to you.
A website run by Homeless Link offers information about services for anyone facing homelessness, including a directory of services.
Citizens Advice have an advice site that can also help you find your local citizens advice bureau for face-to-face advice and help. The site includes information about benefits, immigration, housing and other useful topics. It has separate sections for the different parts of the UK and has a section in Welsh (click the 'Cymru' tab).
Community Legal Advice is the legal service funded by government legal aid. Although they provide advice on housing and welfare benefits they do not normally give advice about entitlement where immigration status is an issue. However, they will help you find a qualified legal adviser if you make an enquiry who can give you free advice (provided you qualify for legal aid).
Private renting and rights
Crisis has a useful site about the private rented sector with lots of information about renting privately as well as a list of schemes in London that may be able to help with deposits and rent in advance.
Decent and Safe Homes (DaSH) operates in the East Midlands and aims to raise the standards of private rented accommodation there. Their site includes information for landlords and tenants and about their migrant workers project.
Landlord Accreditation Wales is a scheme which can help find a good landlord or agent of private rented property in parts of Wales. The website has a search facility and other information about renting privately.
Advice for migrant workers
In Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government has produced a Welcome to Wales pack for migrant workers, available in 20 different languages.
The Migrant Workers Project covers the East Midlands and Lincolnshire, but includes information of use to all migrant workers. Their site can be read in Albanian, Czech, German, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Turkish, Ukrainian and English.
Myukinfo covers the East of England but has a range of information useful to migrant workers generally.
The Decent and Safe Homes (DaSH) site in the East Midlands has some useful leaflets about migrant workers and their rights in various languages:
The Trades Union Congress, which represents all major UK trades unions, runs the worksmart website which includes a section for migrant workers. From there you can access the leaflet workSMART know your rights in English and:
They also run a site in Polish (in partnership with Citizens Advice and Solidarnosc) which includes detailed information about working and living in Britain. The UK government has also produced some leaflets in Bulgarian, English, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian and Slovakian about working in the UK.
Benefits
The Department for Work and Pensions administers welfare benefits (for the unemployed and those unable to work) in the UK. The DirectGov website includes comprehensive information about benefits for:
You can also use this site to find the office nearest you to claim benefits. No information is currently available in languages other than English or Welsh. Tax credits are benefits available for some people who are on low incomes, but in work.
This independent welfare rights site by Dumfries Welfare Rights has written guides to all the main benefits.
Many local councils include a housing and council tax benefits calculator on their sites (here is an example from Salford City Council). Turn2us also has a benefits checker (but may be of limited use to new migrants).
Advice for refugees
The largest organisation working for refugees in England is the Refugee Council. It produces information in a range of refugee languages.
The Welsh Refugee Council works with refugees over all of Wales. Refugee Voice Wales is an umbrella organisation that represents refugee community organisations in Wales.
Refugee Action also have a useful set of leaflets aimed at women refugees explaining their rights in areas like family law, relationship breakdown and domestic violence.
