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Hertfordshire County Council

Debt

If you find yourself in debt, get help straight away - it'll just get worse if you ignore it. This is an issue that will not go away. 

Your personal advisor can help you make sense of the debt and give you advice on where to go for help. They can help with repayment plans, making budget and understanding the financial decisions that may have caused this.

Money Advice Service

Get debt advice on their website, over webchat or by phone.

 

 

Banking

You should have a bank account by the age of 16. This helps when you get allowances and keeps your money safe.

If you have a child trust fund or junior individual savings account, at 16 you'll be able to manage your own account and at 18 you can access your funds.

If you haven't got a bank account, your worker can help you set one up and provide ID or proof of address.

The Citizens Advice has some great advice about:

Opening a bank account Credit cards – pros and cons

 

Pre-paid cards

If you can't set up your own bank account, we can give you a pre-paid card.

It's a debit card with an agreed amount on it (up to £500). You can check your balance and transactions online. We can check the transactions, as well.

There's no overdraft facility and there are restrictions on what you can buy. For example, you can't use it for gambling or petrol.

Speak to your worker to find out more.

 

Budgeting

Budget calculator

Use this tool from Citizens Advice to work out your monthly or weekly budget. This'll help you stay on top of your income and spending, so problems will be easier to spot.


Save money on your food shopping:

20 tips to eat well for less

Advice from the NHS.

Supermarket shopping tips

Techniques to slash your food bill, from Money Saving Expert.

Supermarket coupons

Vouchers and discounts from Money Saving Expert.

 

More discounts and vouchers

 

Bills

Bills you might need to budget for:

  • gas / electric – you might get a combined bill or 2 separate bills, depending on how it's set up.
  • council tax 
  • TV licence 
  • internet / phone / TV – most of the time you'll have a 'package' with all 3 together in one bill.
  • home contents insurance
  • water 
  • rent.


Understanding your bills:

Many companies have information online to help customers understand their bills.

Try searching for:

"understanding my [company name] bill"

For example, understanding my Hertfordshire council tax bill.


If you'd like to speak to someone, you can ask your worker or contact Citizens Advice.

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Cookies

Like many other websites, we place small information files called 'cookies' on your computer.

Why do we use cookies?

To remember your settings, for example your language and location. This means you don’t have to keep entering these details when you visit a new page.

To find out how you use the site to help us update and improve it.

How do I change my cookie settings?

You can change the settings of your web browser so that it won’t accept cookies. For more information visit AboutCookies.org.

But, doing this may stop you from using some of the online features and services on this website. 

Cookies we use

Cookies do a lot of different jobs, and we use 2 types of cookies:

Required functionality cookies – these cookies are essential for the website to work.

Performance and feature cookies – these cookies help to improve the performance and feel of this website, for example providing you with personalised services.


Take a look at a list of cookies we use on our website:

NameTypeHow we use itHow long we use the information for

ASP.Net_Sessions

 

Required functionality

An automatic cookie set by our software. 

Just for the time you are on our website.

ServerID

 

Required functionality

An automatic cookie set by our software. 

Just for the time you are on our website.

_ga

Required functionality

To track the effectiveness of our website using Google Analytics. 

2 years

saved-pages

Performance and feature

To save the pages that you visit by clicking the heart at the top of the page. 

1 month

geoPostcode

Performance and feature

This stores your postcode (or partial postcode) when we ask you for your location.

Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).

geoCoordinates

Performance and feature

This stores your location as a pair of latitude / longitude coordinates.

Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).

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Performance and feature

This keeps a history of all answers submitted to the ready reckoner.

This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.

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Performance and feature

This keeps a history of what content cards are clicked on when using the ready reckoner.

This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.

SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION

Required functionality

This used to track user sessions on forms hosted on eservices.hertfordshire.gov.uk

Just for the time you are on our website.

Third party cookies

There are links and content from other sites and services on our website. These sites and services set their own cookies.

Below are a list of cookies that the other sites and services use:

Service namePurposeMore information

Google analytics (_utma/b/c/z)

These are used to compile reports for us on how people use this site.

Cookies of the same names are also used for the same purpose by other websites such as Building Futures, Countryside Management Service and Hertfordshire LIS.

Visit the Google Analytics website for more information about the cookies they use.

You can prevent data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by installing Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Google Translation - googtrans

This cookie is used to remember which language to translate each page into if you have chosen to do so.

It expires at the end of your browser session.

Bing

We use a Bing cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.

Visit Bing to find out more about their cookies.

Google

We use a Google cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.

Visit Google to find out more about their cookies.

Facebook

We have a number of presences on Facebook, which we may link to. Facebook may set some of its own cookies if you follow these links.

Visit Facebook to find out more about their cookies.

Twitter

We have a number of presences and feeds on Twitter, which you may wish to follow or read from this website. Twitter may set some of its own cookies.

Visit Twitter to find out more about their cookies.

YouTube

We have a YouTube channel, which we may link to. YouTube may set some of its own cookies if you follow those links.

Visit YouTube to find out more about their cookies.

Netloan

This ASP.NET_Sessionid cookie is essential for the Netloan secure online payments website to work, and is set when you arrive to the site. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.

 

HotJar

This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.

Visit HotJar to find out more about their cookies.

Siteimprove

These cookies are set to help us report on how people are using the site so we can improve it.

Visit Siteimprove to learn more about their cookies.