Get Advice

We exist to help those who live or work in the Borough of Bedford

For advice please submit the form below(* = mandatory):

When we record and use your personal information we: Only access it when we have a good reason; Only share it when it is necessary and relevant; and we don’t sell it to commercial organisations. We need to record information about you to help with your enquiry. We have a legitimate interest to do this. Please let us know if you would like more information about how we use your data.

To record any information about the following, you will need to give explicit consent, (please tick any that apply) We will only ask about these categories of data when they relate to your enquiry, or for us to try and improve our service or produce anonymous reports. We will still advise if you do not consent to this, however if any of this information is important to your enquiry (for example health benefits) then this may limit how much we can assist or how much detail we can go into.

Get Help / Emergency Food or Fuel

Bedford Citizens Advice work closely with the local Trussell Trust Foodbanks and other independent food providers. If you are in a food crisis and need a food bank voucher fill in this form.

Alternatively you can call us on 01234 346543. This number is for food crisis only and you will be asked to call Bedford Adviceline on 01234 867944 if you need help with something else.

Bedford Citizens Advice are referral agents for the Fuelbank Foundation. If you are in a fuel crisis and have no energy, please fill in this form. Alternatively you can call us on 01234 346543. This number is for fuel crisis only and you will be asked to call Bedford Adviceline on 01234 867944 if you need help with something else.

Call Us

There is around a 45 minutes call wait to speak to an advisor at present. We are sorry about this and are doing all we can to help as many as possible. We are a charity run mostly by volunteers and we have an enormous number of calls each week and just don’t have enough funding or volunteers to answer them all.

You can also send us an email to request advice. We guaranteed a reply within 5 days.

If your advice query can’t be resolved by looking at our online info or you cannot wait for us to reply to your email please do give us a call on the Bedford Adviceline on 01234 867944. If you are in a food or fuel crisis please call our dedicated food and fuel line on 01234 346543.

We are currently recruiting Volunteers to help our waiting times. If you can help, or know someone who may be interested please see our Volunteer with us page.

Email Us

You can use our Contact Form to request a call back or an email from one of our advisers. During busy periods this can take up to three working days but will usually be sooner.

Important Information

  • We can only help people who live or work in the Bedford Borough Council area.
  • If your query is urgent, you are facing an emergency, or you have deadlines, please also contact our Bedford Adviceline on 01234 867944. If it is concerning a food crisis see here.
  • We will respond to the contact details you provide on the form and cannot be responsible if any person other than yourself has access to these.
  • Although we aim to provide appropriate advice in our first response, on some occasions we may ask you for further information before we can give advice.
  • By making a referral please understand you are consenting to share your data with us. To understand how we use your data please read our Privacy Policy.
  • If you are making a third-party referral on behalf of someone else you will need to complete a third party referral form and upload it via the contact form. You will be given the option to download this on the contact form but you can also do so here.
Get in Touch

Face-to-Face

We have availability for face to face appointments in our Harpur Centre office in the centre of Bedford.

These appointments are currently open to those with priority needs and will be offered to those who will benefit from seeing one of our advisers in person.

If you need some advice please call our Bedford Adviceline on 01234 867944 or use our contact form. If we think you need a face to face appointment we will arrange this with you.

Our reception doors are open during the following times for handing in of documents:

  • Monday to Thursday 9.45am to 4pm.

As well as our main office, we also attend a number of Outreach sessions each week Our current venues can be found here.

Contact Us via Webchat

Help to Claim

Our Help to Claim advisers can help you with the early stages of your Universal Credit claim. You can talk to them on the phone, or online over chat.

Our advisers can help you:

  • Work out if you can get Universal Credit
  • Fill in the Universal Credit application
  • Prepare for your first Jobcentre appointment
  • Check your first payment is correct

You can read our online advice on Universal Credit at any time.

Report Hate Crime

Mary Seacole Housing Association has recently opened a new Hate Crime service, this service is called Bedfordshire's Community Mediation Service. The service was developed to support people who are experiencing Hate Crime/ Hate Incidents who live in Luton, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford.

The service aims are to provide victims of Hate Crime and Hate Incidents with support, raise awareness, breakdown reporting barriers and work as a mediation service to increase the reporting rate of hate crimes across Bedfordshire.

Support is provided through a online chatline which can be accessed through Bedfordshire's Community Mediations website. The website has an accessibility feature to provide extra support for individuals and there also an option if needed for people who can not access the website to have over the phone or face to face support. Please see link below to access chat line and find out more information: https://communitymediationservice.com/hate-crime-and-incidents/

Alt Text!
Alt Text!
Alt Text!
Copyright © 2023 Citizens Advice Bedford. All rights reserved. Citizens Advice Bedford is an operating name of Bedford Citizens Advice Bureau. Registered charity number: 1106738 A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales number 5190146 Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN: 817506 Registered office: Citizens Advice Bedford, 8 Harpur Centre, Bedford, MK40 1TP.
Terms | Cookie Policy | Sitemap