The Money Advice Service’s (MAS) largest funding agreement is with Citizens Advice with £23m to be allocated to fund its debt advice projects in England and Wales.

The service has agreed to help fund six leading debt advice partners in total across England and Wales.

MAS says that 150,000 people across these regions will benefit from free debt advice.

The service will also allocate £2.35m to fund the delivery of debt advice through a partnership with the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).

This funding builds on the service’s existing partnership with SLAB. It will finance new projects to help groups of over-indebted people in Scotland including those who face barriers to accessing help to deal with their debts, such as: people with complex mental health needs, physical disabilities, and those experiencing domestic abuse.

In addition, the service will commit £350,000 to other projects in Scotland, including a pilot to integrate financial capability support into insolvency practices.

Caroline Siarkiewicz, head of the UK debt advice programme at the Money Advice Service, said: “In a time of turbulence in the debt advice sector, when many organisations are withdrawing or cutting-back funding, we are proud to continue our support for the essential services provided by our debt advice partners.

“We know that the services we fund make a huge difference to the lives of over indebted people. We want to thank our partners who have worked tirelessly with us over the last year and we look forward to continuing our work together this year.”

In addition to the £30.6m funding for debt advice projects, £3.8m is being allocated to the Money Advice Service’s work to co-ordinate and improve quality and consistency across the debt advice sector, including projects focussed on data management, evaluation, standards and triage.