Life is tough at times. Especially in 2025 for those struggling with finances. There can be all sorts of reasons for this – job losses, health issues, relationship breakdowns but regardless of the causes it can become a desperate place when you don’t know how to pay your bills, deal with your debts or in the hardest cases put food on the table.
Gary Jones Debt Centre Manager
This is where Maidenhead CAP Debt Centre tries to help. Acting as debt coaches for Christians Against Poverty (CAP) through the local church, Gary Jones (Manager) and Janet Tinkler (Debt Coach) seek to help those struggling with debt crisis to find a way forwards. Our approach is twofold. Firstly, as CAP, we provide free financial advice and help through a series of meetings, usually held in the client’s homes. We hear their stories and build up a picture of their financial situation which we pass to our head office where our fully trained and regulated debt advisors put together bespoke individual advice for each client. That advice is then delivered to the clients, discussed and, if they want to, the clients can sign up for help from head office to implement that advice. CAP looks at 9 different possible solutions with the two most common routes proposed being either a debt management plan i.e. paying a monthly amount to CAP who then negotiate with creditors to pay off the debts over a period of time or an insolvency such as a debt relief order or bankruptcy where an application is made to the government insolvency service to have all or most of the debts written off, so the client can have a fresh start with their finances.
Janet Tinkler Debt Coach
The second element of our work which makes us unique amongst debt charities is our link to the local church. As Christians our motivation is to serve the poor in our own towns and to us this means providing the supportive and encouraging environment needed for the clients to access the services and to feel that they have, in CAP and the church, a friendly and supportive community around them. As previously mentioned, in most cases we visit clients in their own homes, so they don’t need to travel to an unfamiliar office. We require various bits of financial information to do our job and for many clients making the phone calls or logging onto websites to get that information can be quite challenging so we will often help them make the calls, log on to the websites and also help with other issues such as applying for universal credit, council tax support or Personal Independent Payment, etc as necessary.
In all this we try offer a listening ear and a non-judgemental, supportive and friendly approach. We know that the job is as much about supporting and caring for people as it is about providing financial services.
Our service is open to all people of all faiths or none without pressure but as Christians we also believe in the transforming power of Jesus Christ so we offer brief prayers to our clients, the majority of whom accept and are often moved by these times. We also see it as important to offer community to our clients and in our current times churches can provide valuable and supportive communities for those who have become isolated over time. Many churches offer social events, community lunches etc in addition to their services and where possible we try to invite clients to those events.
We delight in every client who goes debt free, but we are even more overjoyed with those who join us on a journey of faith. We’ve been operating in Maidenhead since 2018 and in that time have seen a number of individuals and families join local churches and find faith and community in a way that was unexpected to them, but has richly enhanced their and our lives. We were even delighted to have Syd Whitney a Maidenhead resident and former CAP client (now debt free) feature as the “face of CAP” in 2023 with his story told in thousands of churches throughout the UK and in person at a number of conferences.
So for you the reader, what might all this mean for you? Clients are always our priority so if you or close family, friends, neighbours or colleagues are struggling with debt or finances please get or put them in touch. Alongside our debt service we also run budgeting courses which are designed to help people manage their money well so that they face fewer financial crises and have more money available for the things that are important to them. The course is not just for those in debt but for anyone who wants to spend a little time thinking about how they manage their money. Why not ask us to come and run the course for a small group that you’re a part of.
We’re also always interested in those who would like to volunteer to join us. This can be through coming with us on client visits as a befriender, promoting our service and introducing us to groups that may benefit from it, keeping us informed of events or opportunities for our clients or even joining us to run the budgeting course or maybe even training as a debt coach. Anyone can contact me, Gary Jones, on 07485 157796 or email garyjones@capuk.org to discuss debt and finances confidentially, and to see if what we do could be helpful.
To book straight in to the debt service, the CAP helpline can be called on 0800 328 0006, further details of which can be found on the CAP national website. To find out more about our local service here in Maidenhead please take a look at our web page https://rivermaidenhead.church/cap/ where you will find out more about us, get to hear Syd’s story, volunteer and be able to register interest in the money course.
Thank you for reading.