Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

[cymruambyth]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Apparently debt advisors aren't needed because they want to concentrate on debt prevention ............. does that mean we can all ignore debt?
Debt prevention is ideal but after the hedonistic years of spend, spend, spend there should be something in place to complement the resultimg debt, debt, debt.

[Legal Beagles]

Written Answers ? Treasury: Financial Inclusion Fund (31 Jan 2011)

Ian Austin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for the end of the Financial Inclusion Fund; and if he will make a statement.

More...


Mark Hoban (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
The Financial Inclusion Fund has always been due to close in March 2010. The Government have not yet taken a decision on the future of the projects currently funded from the Financial Inclusion Fund.
The Government remain committed to helping poorer households to access appropriate financial services, to improve their financial resilience and to avoid falling into unsustainable levels of debt.

[Legal Beagles]

Written Answers ? Business, Innovation and Skills: Financial Inclusion Fund (31 Jan 2

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the end of the Financial Inclusion Fund on the number of centres in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands providing debt advice.

More...

Edward Davey (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs), Business, Innovation and Skills; Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)
The Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) has always been due to close in March 2011. The Government have not yet taken a decision on the future of the projects currently funded from the FIF. In the meantime, my officials have worked with the projects involved to understand the potential scale of any redundancies and taken steps to ensure that any redundancy costs can be met from project funds rather than affecting the viability of the organisations affected.

[Amethyst]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

It isn't just debt though is it

[Amethyst]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Well if this is true it really takes the biscuit

Birmingham’s Citizens Advice Bureau chief has been accused of playing party politics with the service and trying to bully the council into giving the organisation more money.
The allegation comes from the council’s Liberal Democrat local services boss Ayoub Khan, who said that he was being held to ransom by CAB.
The organisation announced it would close its five Birmingham offices next week due to the loss of £600,000 council funding.
Coun Khan said: “The bureau has gone to the press and announced it is closing offices before talking to us. It is no coincidence that the chief executive is a Labour councillor in Sandwell.


"I will not be bullied into action when other voluntary groups are going about it in the right way by talking to us.”

Citizens Advice Bureau is one of 13 voluntary advice groups to see its funding end in March 2011, while a proposed new fund will not come on line until July or August.
Coun Khan said that contingency funding is available to see groups through a four-month funding gap.
CAB chief executive Yvonne Davies, who is Labour councillor for Hateley Heath, said it was a shame he was bringing party politics into the debate.
She said: “I keep my party allegiance separate from my work. This is about a service for the vulnerable people of Birmingham which we cannot afford to run.”
She said that officials told them that no information on contingency funds would be available until the end of February which was “too late” to save the service.
Meanwhile, the council’s Labour group leader Sir Albert Bore has demanded Khan resign for leaving the 13 groups vulnerable to the four to five month funding gap.
Coun Bore said: “For months, this Tory/Lib Dem council has been plotting cuts to the grants provided to third sector groups, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.
“The deceit was to pretend that the 13 agencies previously funded would be able to continue without funding, beyond the contracted end date of March 2011 until new contracts were awarded for July 2011.”
Coun Khan responded that a contingency fund of up to £1 million is available from which organisations can bid and that the council was not leaving organisations to flounder.

Read More http://www.birminghampost.net/news/w...#ixzz1ChfKfCp6



Read More http://www.birminghampost.net/news/w...#ixzz1ChbiPkBO

EDM in today

Early Day Motion

EDM 1377

CLOSURE OF BIRMINGHAM CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
31.01.2011


Godsiff, Roger
That this House views with the gravest concern the proposed closure by Birmingham City Council of all five advice bureaux across the city; commends the independent service and open door advice which the Birmingham Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has provided since 1939 and which helped 56,000 people last year; believes the decision by Birmingham City Council to cut funding to be ill-conceived and detrimental to the interests of the wider community; and calls on the Government to intervene immediately to ring-fence CAB funding in Birmingham and across the country thereby ensuring the continued provision of a free and independent advice service to many of its most vulnerable citizens.

[Chip Tuesday]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

To add insult to injury, Citizens Advice will now face a potential wave of clients looking for debt advice as the government is not renewing the Financial Inclusion Fund, which provides free debt services in England and Wales.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12330429

Debt advisors stop taking cases as funding ends
[...]
'Doesn't stack up'

Citizens Advice warns that the cut in funding will leave a gaping hole in provision Citizens Advice says its operations are already under pressure because of the loss of funding from local authorities. It says this decision to end funding could not have come at a worse time.

"It just doesn't stack up, unemployment is rising, the economy is in a difficult situation and there is an increasing demand for debt advice and at this time to lose frontline services in local communities doesn't seem to make sense," the organisation's director of policy, Teresa Perchard, told the BBC

CT

[Amethyst]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

On the legal aid side of all this ......

Take part - JusticeForAll

URGENT - PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

Ask your MP to attend the backbench debate on legal aid, 3 February 2011, 11.30am Main Chamber. Give them the briefing below and tell them about your concerns.
j4a_briefing.pdf (Adobe PDF - 329Kb)
Take part in campaigning for justice for all:


Join Justice for All

Write to your MP

Adapt the template letter below to ask your MP to support the campaign and sign EDM 1194. You could also ask them to meet with you to discuss the issues in more detail.
j4a_MPletter.doc (MS Word Document - 33Kb)
Get in the local press

Raise awareness of the local concerns that made you join Justice for All. Adapt the model press release below for your organisation; or write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
j4a_modelrelease.doc (MS Word Document - 40Kb)
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Print the flyer and sign-up sheet on the right to publicise the campaign.




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[Latch Key Kid]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Hi

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the adverts for the xxxx% interest loans that seem to be appearing more frequently on the TV?

They and others must be cock a hoop over all these stories about CABs and the loss of genuine free independent debt advisers.

The vultures are hovering you could say.

If they 'eventually' do the wrong thing here then what untold misery will this cause and what will the eventual overall cost be to put it all back together again?

Don't forget that famous catchphrase though - "we are all in this together"

[Angry Cat]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Please, email your MP's!!!!

http://www.justice-for-all.org.uk/Take-part

[Legal Beagles]

Written Answers ? Treasury: Financial Inclusion Fund (1 Feb 2011)

Ian Austin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what representations he has received from the Citizens Advice Bureau on the ending of the Financial Inclusion Fund; and if he will make a statement; (2) what discussions he has had with (a) the Citizens Advice Bureau, (b) the Insolvency Helpline and (c) other organisations on the ending of the Financial Inclusion Fund.

More...

Mark Hoban (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
Treasury Ministers and officials have contact with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of such contacts.

[Legal Beagles]

Written Answers ? Treasury: Financial Inclusion Fund (1 Feb 2011)

Iain Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to establish a successor scheme to the Financial Inclusion Fund from 31 March 2011; and if he will make a statement.

More...


Mark Hoban (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
The Financial Inclusion Fund has always been due to close in March 2011. The Government have not yet taken a decision on the future of the projects currently funded from the Financial Inclusion Fund.
The Government remain committed to helping poorer households to access appropriate financial services, to improve their financial resilience and to avoid falling into unsustainable levels of debt.

[Amethyst]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will assess the merits of co-operating with consumer advice organisations to provide consumer advice in deprived communities.

• Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 1 February 2011, c716W)

Edward Davey (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs), Business, Innovation and Skills; Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)
This Department is leading work aimed at making the provision of information, advice and education to consumers simpler and more effective. The organisations at the focus of this work are Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland. These are the umbrella organisations for the Citizens Advice Bureaux that have a unique track record in providing advice to citizens, often those who are vulnerable or come from deprived communities. This includes consumer advice. In 2009/10 Citizens Advice helped 2.1 million people with over seven million problems at 3,500 locations in England and Wales.


This Department is also discussing with the consumer organisation Which? about making wider use of its online information and thereby reducing the costs to the taxpayer of providing such information.

[Angry Cat]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

This Department is also discussing with the consumer organisation Which? about making wider use of its online information and thereby reducing the costs to the taxpayer of providing such information.

Which? magazine have been a great champion for the consumer and of course, on-line information is of great benefit.

But, for the unempowered there can be no substitution for the Citizens Advice Bureaux. Where a confused consumer can go and obtain advice and assistance, face to face.

So it's not that simple!

[Amethyst]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

I don't think Which? is that great for general consumer advice - SOGA / Housing / Debts etc. Maybe they are talking about taking over AdviceGuide and the ConsumerDirect sites ? I don't know CAB were billed to take over ConsumerDirect so none of this makes any sense at all to me.

[Angry Cat]

Re: Citizens Advice staff facing redundancies

Yes, CAB were billed to take over Consumer Direct.
But, a colleague told me that when he recently went to CAB, they appeared to be unsure about about exactly what was happening re: Consumer Direct and themselves.

Which? is pretty good if you subscribe to their monthly magazine(s).