SAIL is the only UK-wide Citizens Advice for seafarers and their partners. We are all experienced professional advisers who understand the issues you face.
SAIL’s help is completely free. We provide support by phone, email and Zoom. SAIL also has monthly advice outreaches at Care Ashore, VOS and QVSR.
We’re all Citizens Advice trained and the quality of our advice is checked regularly.
We were established in 1996 as part of Greenwich Citizens Advice Bureaux with funding from the Seamen’s Hospital Society. Originally known as the Seafarers’ Benefits Advice Line (or SeaBal for short), we quickly built up our profile, attracting clients from all over the UK and developing relationships with the seafaring community. We now deal with over 1,500 clients every year.
Would you buy a new cooker if it wasn’t up to UK safety standards? We guess not. Similarly, there are standards for giving advice too.
Seafarers deserve the best advice possible. And that’s why we’re here.
SAIL is a Citizens Advice service so all our advisers are fully trained. This can take up to two years. Our advice is independently checked so that it keeps up to a high standard. Also we’ve got the Advice Quality Standard mark showing that SAIL’s advice is advice you can trust.
SAIL is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to give one-to-one debt advice.
Already getting advice?
If you’re already getting advice, why not ask your adviser what independent Quality Standards their organisation has? None? Then can you guarantee you’re getting good advice? And what will happen if things go wrong?