First Annual Impact report

Today, Debt Talk CIC is proud to share our First Annual Impact Report 2026.

Our first year has been about building the foundations for something bigger: a community-led organisation combining specialist debt advice, financial education, research, advocacy and community engagement.

And the numbers tell an important story:

📌 £165,000 of debt managed through specialist advice and casework
🏠 17 households helped to avoid homelessness
🤝 8 strategic partnerships built
🎙️ 40 Debt Talk Podcast episodes completed
📣 7,000+ listeners reached
👥 350 people engaged through our community work
📚 1 major research report published
🏛️ 3 national government consultations responded to
🎓 4 trainee debt advisers recruited
✅ FCA authorisation obtained to deliver regulated debt advice

But our impact cannot be measured in numbers alone.

Behind every case is a person, a family and a story.

Our work has reinforced something we strongly believe: financial hardship is rarely just about money. Debt can be connected to housing insecurity, health, poverty, caring responsibilities, digital exclusion, discrimination and wider inequality.

That's why financial support must be trusted, culturally responsive, trauma-informed and rooted in lived experience.

We are proud to be building an organisation where communities are not simply spoken about — they are listened to, represented and empowered to shape the solutions.And this is only the beginning.

Our next chapter will focus on expanding specialist debt advice, strengthening financial education, deepening our research and policy work, developing local talent and continuing to amplify community voices through the Debt Talk Podcast.

Locally rooted. Nationally influential. Globally connected.

Thank you to our communities, funders, partners, volunteers, advisers, supporters and everyone who has helped us reach this first milestone.

Together, we can turn lived experience into knowledge, partnership and lasting social change.