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The UK's national charity for working parents and carers

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The Big Give Christmas Challenge


Until Tuesday 10th December, any donation you make through the Big Give Christmas Challenge will be matched – doubling the impact of your support. Whether big or small, every donation helps us create a fairer working world for parents and carers.

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Free helpline for parents & carers

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday – 11am-2pm (except bank holidays)

0300 012 0312

Our telephone helpline will be CLOSED (our online service will remain open) on the following days:
Monday 9 December

Christmas helpline closure

Telephone helpline CLOSED from 18 December to 2 January
Online contact form CLOSED from 13 December to 2 January

The  telephone helpline is for parents, carers and their advisers. We are an independent charity offering free advice on employment rights for parents and carers and in-work benefits for families. You can also use our online form to ask for advice.

Advice contact form

We advise on a range of topics affecting parents and carers at work. Some common examples are:

“Your email has been so helpful and answered all of my initial questions. I definitely have a better understanding of my maternity rights now. Thank you for also providing links so I can look up further information.”

“I was feeling so panicky before the call but now I feel so much more confident now that I’ve spoken to you.”

Will I be charged for calling?

Our helpline number is an 0300 number and costs the same as a national call. It should be included in any free minutes you have with your mobile phone provider.

“This is such a helpful service for people who are feeling very distressed about discrimination at work.”

Information likely to be helpful

Please include any important dates or key information as these will help us to advise you. Information that is likely to be helpful is:

  • Where in the UK are you based?
  • If you have previously been in contact with us, do you have a record of the date you received advice and name of the adviser?
  • Are you an employee / worker?
  • Date you commenced employment
  • Date of any key events, e.g. due date if you are pregnant / acts of discrimination
  • Are you currently claiming any benefits and if so, what?

“Thank you so much for your time today you’ve given me some really useful pointers and clarified my rights around parental leave and time off for dependants – it’s really appreciated.”

Client Charter

Please see our Legal Advice Service Client Charter which outlines what we will do for you; the standards of service you can expect; and the expected timescales. It also outlines what we need from you to enable us to meet our commitments. 

Complaints

Every year Working Families offers help to thousands of parents and carers and with their problems.  However, occasionally someone may feel we got things wrong. We need to be told so we can put things right.

If you have a comment or complaint about any aspect of the service we have provided you, please email us back at advice@workingfamilies.org.uk

For more details, read our complaints policy.

Privacy

Our email and telephone advice line are confidential. This means we won’t share your details with anyone outside Working Families without your permission (except for our volunteers, and in some cases, auditors – who are also bound by confidentiality).

For more details, read our privacy policy.

Sign up to newsletters

Working Families advice team also sends regular newsletters to parents, carers and professionals. To sign up to one or more of these newsletters, you can subscribe here.