CITIZENS ADVICE MERTON AND LAMBETH
Registered charity 1046018 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as MERTON AND LAMBETH CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX LIMITED, MERTON CABX, MERTON CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX LIMITED
Citizens Advice Merton and Lambeth is the leading advice charity supporting individuals and families who live, work or study primarily in the London boroughs of Merton and Lambeth, but also elsewhere. We also work to raise awareness and understanding of the challenging issues affecting individuals and our communities.
Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity closed the financial year with a small surplus of £31,145, following a prior year deficit. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves stood at £464,365, which meets the stated policy target of three months of operational expenditure, indicating adequate short-term financial stability despite ongoing funding pressures.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves policy: three months operational expenditure (held: £464k)
“Throughout 2024-2025 we continued to meet the reserves policy of three months operational expenditure in unrestricted funds.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Hartley Fowler LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — CAML (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Simon Shimmens — Chief Executive (source)
- Karen Brunger — Deputy CEO (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Funders the charity credits
Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).
- Merton Council — “A big thanks to everyone.
Merton Council” (source page)
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- DODDS, Christina — director, appointed 11/09/2025on trustee list
- VIJH, Nikhil — director, appointed 11/09/2025on trustee list
- MCCLOSKEY, Carl — director, appointed 19/06/2025on trustee list
- OKYERE, Elaine — director, appointed 17/06/2024on trustee list
- ANDERSON, Catherine Jane — director, appointed 17/06/2024on trustee list
- WEAL, Rory — director, appointed 17/06/2024on trustee list
- MA, Anthony — director, appointed 30/06/2023on trustee list
- SOUTHORN, Chris — director, appointed 12/04/2023not on trustee list
- WHITING, Lisa Ellen — director, appointed 07/11/2022on trustee list
- COULTER, Elizabeth Rose — director, appointed 04/12/2019on trustee list
- SHIMMENS, Simon — secretary, appointed 17/06/2024
Official officers record.
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Reported reserves equal ~4.1 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (96% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.3% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
- Elizabeth Coulterchair
- Anthony Ma
- Carl McCloskey
- Catherine Anderson · trustee of 1 other charity
- Christina Dodds
- Christopher Southorn
- Elaine Okyere
- Lisa Whiting
- Nikhil Vijh
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Throughout England
Income and spending
Common questions
Is CITIZENS ADVICE MERTON AND LAMBETH financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity closed the financial year with a small surplus of £31,145, following a prior year deficit. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves stood at £464,365, which meets the stated policy target of three months of operational expenditure, indicating adequate short-term financial stability despite ongoing funding pressures. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Hartley Fowler LLP.
Who funds CITIZENS ADVICE MERTON AND LAMBETH?
Funders whose own accounts filings name CITIZENS ADVICE MERTON AND LAMBETH as a grant recipient include TRUST FOR LONDON, WALCOT EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
Funders of similar charities
Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.
Charities like this
Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with MERTHYR TYDFIL CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.