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.

Objects

THE CHARITY'S OBJECTS ARE TO PROMOTE ANY CHARITABLE PURPOSE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF HEALTH AND THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, SICKNESS AND DISTRESS IN PARTICULAR, BUT WITHOUT LIMITATION, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY IN LONDON BOROUGHS OF MERTON AND LAMBETH AND SURROUNDING AREAS.

Area of benefit: LONDON BOROUGH OF MERTON AND SURROUNDING AREAS ("THE PRINCIPLE AREA OF BENEFIT") AND ELSEWHERE IN GREATER LONDON

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Merton, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

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

Accounts audited by Hartley Fowler LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Financial Conduct Authority. This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 02914384 · Financial health read from its filings

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 4.7 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 (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Elizabeth Coulterchair
• 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

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 CITIZENS ADVICE SEFTON.

• CITIZENS ADVICE SEFTON income £1.1m
• CITIZENS ADVICE CENTRAL DORSET LIMITED income £1.4m
• CAMDEN CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX SERVICE LIMITED income £1.6m
• CITIZENS ADVICE IN NORTH & WEST KENT income £2.1m
• CITIZENS ADVICE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LTD income £1.4m
• Citizens Advice Somerset income £2.3m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.