Money and debt advice
Making the most of your money
At the RCN we are committed to supporting our members. So we have teamed up with the Money Advice Service to bring you a new online resource.
This online guide has been produced to help you better understand and organise your personal finances and to help you make the most of your money in these tough economic times.
Debt advice
When you are faced with a change of circumstances, such as a reduction in your working hours, ill health, job loss, cutbacks on extra shifts or increased living costs, it can be hard to keep on top of your finances. For some people this may be a short-term concern but others may be faced with longer-term financial difficulties.
Having debts or bills to pay can feel like a never ending problem. Missing payments leads to increasing debt and creditors can put you under a lot of pressure.
Whatever your circumstances the RCN Welfare Rights and Guidance Service can provide debt advice and look at your overall financial situation to establish if you are receiving all the money that is available to you.
Our advisers can:
- check that you are receiving all the statutory benefits and tax credits that you are entitled to, including possible help with your mortgage. This is especially important if you are off work due to illness, or you or your partner has lost your job
- look at your wider financial situation and help you identify realistic ways of increasing your income and reducing your expenditure
- assist you in identifying which of your debts to deal with first
- assist you in providing information to your creditors about your financial situation and work out affordable offers of repayment
- explore longer-term solutions such as final settlements or insolvency where appropriate.
Some of the resources on this page are in PDF format. Click here for guidance on how to access PDF files
Underpayment of Income Tax
If you have been affected by an underpayment of Income Tax and want to know how to handle this, you can download our factsheet 06 Underpayment of tax (PDF 43.1KB) You may also find it helpful to read the additional notes in factsheet 06a Tax underpayment (PDF 31.3KB) If you do want to speak to a welfare adviser about a tax underpayment, we ask that you read this guidance first as there are limits to the type of assistance we can provide about this issue.
Contacting us
If you would like to speak to our money adviser about your situation, please call the RCN Member Support Services helpline on 0345 408 4391 between 9.30am - 1pm and 2pm - 4.30pm on weekdays. Alternatively, you can use our online referral form. Someone will respond to your referral as soon as possible.
Completing a financial breakdown of your income, expenditure and debts before your appointment will help give the adviser an overview of your financial situation. Click here to complete a financial statement (Excel 92KB) which you will then need to save making sure you include your surname and membership number in the file name. You can email your completed budget form to mss@rcn.org.uk and someone will contact you to make you an appointment with our money adviser.
Before contacting our service, you may want to read our guidance about dealing with a drop in income (PDF 340KB) which may answer some of your questions about dealing with your debts.