“I’ve worked with the 999 Club for 12 years. I focus on housing and benefits. I have great success with benefits tribunals in particular – I’ve only lost one case in all the years I’ve been doing them.
“I enjoy the contact with people – being able to help people resolve their issues.
“Because of my years of experience, and because a lot of the people I work with have physical or mental health issues, I have an understanding about how people are affected by their various conditions. This makes it easier for people, who otherwise can have difficulty explaining their situation.
“People feel ashamed of discussing what can be very personal information. And there is still a stigma about mental health. They can’t always put into words how they are suffering, but because of my years of experience, I can help them with that.
“Clients relax a bit with me. They tell me lots of very personal things, and I listen without any judgment. I have an ability to make people feel at ease and they find it easy to talk to me – sometimes they will tell me things they’ve never told anyone else before.
“I have a good local reputation – people come to me by word of mouth. They will say ‘ you helped my friend’, and I get recommendations from local doctors’ surgeries.