Citizen's Advice Bureau

[natalie]

I wasn't sure where to post this as it covers pretty much all of our subjects.

 

I've been very disappointed and disheartened to hear some of the experiences and so pre-conceived ideas people have about the CAB. If I'm totally honest before I became a volunteer my opinion of them wasnt great either.

 

However, each bureau is individual and is run according to the committee and manager. So just because one bureau is crap and arent that keen to go out of their way to help, doesnt mean they all are. We are hugely understaffed, underfunded and getting more and more work piled upon us (with the closing of Consumer Direct all that area is coming to us, and with the cutbacks in Legal Aid that is about to happen I imagine a lot more relationship and civil cases will come our way too).

 

The bureau I work for has an excellent supervisor who will go that extra mile (in some cases literally) to make sure our clients get all the help we can offer. If it does feel as though there is nothing we can do, we all get together and bounce ideas around to see if there is an alternative way we can get round the problem, a bit like we do here.

 

I would hate for someone in trouble to not come to see us because they have read how useless the CAB are. Unfortunately we cant always give the client the answer they were hoping for, but if we cant, certainly in our bureau, I hope we explain the reasons and help them find an alternative solution to their problem.

[rebel11]

Hi nat

 

No doubt peoples experience regarding CAB will vary, you will find that this site values CAB and it's abilities to resolve matters for individuals, you just need to check the number of recommendations that individuals are given to contact CAB. Keep up the good work.

[DanscoCAB]

I totally agree natalie, I work for CAB too and we are just so busy! People expect way too much from us sometimes, completely forgetting we are a charity with little cash and mainly staffed by volunteers like us.

 

It does annoy me when people say we're rubbish when they simply don't like the advice given. I had one bloke come back and say I was rubbish last time as I told him he needed to go to his local CAB to sort his problem!

 

Anyone who has bad things to say about CAB should simply think - once we're gone, you'll miss us!

[citizenB]

Moved thread to General Consumer Issues

[sillygirl1]

Its a similar situation on this site, some people just need a nudge in the right direction, others want 'chapter and verse' detailed responses with 'legal evidence' when it is a quite simple (to us) problem.

 

I got shunted from CAB to Age Concern who did not want to know as I wasn't a pensioner, CAB said they could send me to a debt advice person in another town, I told them it was only ONE debt, not many, and they still did not want to know. In the end I sorted it out myself by emailing and phoning and generally making the other lot know I knew my rights, was able to do a defence and the end result was favourable to both parties.

 

CAB round here only seem interested if you have kids and if you haven't they don't want to know.

[natalie]

It may well be because of lack of resources, the fact that they wanted you to go to another town suggests (to me) that perhaps they didn't have a debt specialist. Perhaps their funding is minimal and they don't have many volunteers. Also if you are in a small town and volunteers have to travel to the nearest city, the bureau has to reimburse travel expenses, which is why smaller bureaus often cant afford the training in specific work areas.

 

I have to say though, much as it can be frustrating at times and you feel as though you are banging your head against a brick wall (particularly with the CSA and tax-credits this week!) I love it, and even when (or if) I get a training contract I am still hoping to volunteer.

 

I think there are quite a few on here who would make brilliant advisers, and the only way to improve the CAB service is if more people volunteer.

 

Rebel I wasnt doubting anyone's experience, I've had poor experiences with the CAB in the past myself, I just think its a shame that there are bureaux who arent using it to its full potential whether its through lack of funding, lack of interest or poor management.

[citizenB]

Natalie, I can well understand your frustration, if you believe that your particular office is being tarred with the same brush as those who are being given a bad reputation

 

If you look round the forums you will see that a lot of CAGers have come to us after being given either ambiguous or no advice from their local office.

 

When I saw your post earlier.. I was immediately drawn to one particular thread I have been helping on, below. This cagger could have ended up with a CCJ against her.. but the debt was statute barred. Agreed, it still exists, but SB is a complete defence in itself. The Creditor had taken no steps for 6 years to stake a claim, but then wants to exploit the lack of knowledge of a debtor and to add interest and costs!

 

But this information obviously wasnt provided to the cagger..!!

 

As a matter of interest, would your office been able to advise as such ?

 

 

I have to agree I went to CAB first and they just emailed me a link to their website, how to deal with debt and court. Totally useless.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?337210-bryan-carter-sent-a-court-claim-statute-barred-i-think-**-DISCONTINUED-**&p=3735373&viewfull=1#post3735373

[natalie]

Absolutely, one of the first steps we take in any debt case is to check liability. We send out a form when we book the appointment (debt is by appointment only because usually we allow at least an hour, usually 2-3 hours) which asks general incomings and outgoings, debts, date last payment was made etc etc. Very often if the client is liable and they cant afford even token payments we send nil offer letters and in most cases we contact the DCA on the clients behalf and break the bad new of the OFT guidelines particularly if the client is vulnerable (one of the best parts of my job is upsetting DCAs lol.)

 

We deal with a lot of people with mental health issues, people who often cant deal with even minor problems on their own, our job is to support them and ensure they are doing what is best for them.

 

I really am disappointed when I hear of cases where people are just signposted to websites, we accompany people to tribunals (DWP and ET) and go through pretty much every step of their problem with them and if we cant help, we have a list of solicitors who offer our clients their first appointment free.

 

The only issue we do signpost at the moment is immigration, because we do not have the qualifications legally to advise people, but hopefully this will change later on this year when I do the training for it.

[citizenB]

The most annoying thing is that when people get good service, they very rarely pass it on.. only when they receive bad service does it get publicised !!

[natalie]

That's true enough, but its the nature of the job, we are there usually to pick up the pieces when things are so bad the client cant cope with them on their own, so once its sorted they just want to forget it ever happened.

 

I get lots of ideas and inspiration from here though, especially around debt and dealing with bailiffs.

[sillygirl1]

I am in Sutton, which is a London Borough, our local CAB is a 'drop in' office and they pass you to other offices in Wallington, Morden, Croydon or wherever, they don't actually seem to want to see people in Sutton. If you are over 50 they send you to Age Concern. It is a stupid cycle really, I'm 'too young' for Age Concern and 'not disadvantaged enough' for the mainstream CAB problems!

[Bang!]

In the 90s while a law student plus a few years I was a CAB volunteer in offices in Scotland & England.

 

By the time I left I had become press officer for the largest CAB in Scotland and also was one of the volunteers who headed an annex run in a local hospital.

 

I loved the satisfaction from being there and never took expenses.

 

I left as in the late 90s people on benefits were being paid an extra tenner plus a bus pass to become 'volunteers' or their benefits would be stopped. Sound familiar?

 

Anyway some were great - but a group formed of those who did not want to be there. Bad advice was given - details were recorded poorly or not at all - and many clients were returning sometimes with no file/entry for their previous visit - but the could describe or name who they saw.

 

After a couple of months of this I realised I was often spending more time fixing errors and crap advice as I was on all other work combined.

 

This was basically me working free to support a DSS policy. So I left.

 

Since then CAB funding has fallen, and its basically going to be left as an excuse to appear there is a way of helping people more often than not mucked about by govt departments - with the govt knowing a crippled CAB saves a fortune and its easy to tell someone they should have seen the CAB for help.

 

During writing this I called the CAB to see the date of the first appt available is 'for help with a benefit application' - its not been answered.

 

Volunteers more and more will find themselves unpaid pawns in govt [problem] to save money.

 

I wonder how long until it breaks entirely?

[Crocdoc]

I think every CAB in the country is experiencing difficulty at present as the workload has increased to such a level that the service at breaking point. You just need to look at the number of ESA and DLA appeals, the ever increasing number of debt cases including morgage evictions, the list goes on to infinity.

 

To provide another example, the Scottish Government introduced the best system ever developed for dealing with debt, namely the Debt arrangement Scheme. This scheme protects the home, freezes interest and charges giving the debtor an opportunity to pay their debts over an extended period of time. It is also aimed at reducing the number of fee charging companies who can very often make the situation worse. The Scottish Government have recently spent vast amounts of money advertising this scheme through prime time tv and press articles. These adverts advise people to go to their local CAB in order that the process can be completed free of charge. In principal, this all sounds very good, but for the fact that funding is being reduced and therefore the resources are not available to support the initiative.

[natalie]

Its funny you should say that, I've just back from a workers meeting with a representative from the DWP telling us about PIP.... if people have their forms filled out by an agency (such as CAB) then they wont need additional evidence from a doctor. So it cuts their workload and increases ours considerably.

[Hammy1962]

You did a brave and honest thing posting.

 

Unfortunately, our local CAB is hopeless, but only as hopeless as the local trading standards team, so at least we get consistency.

 

Hammy

[natalie]

What would suggest, is that make a formal complaint (which then has to go to the committee) if these offices are failing due to poor management then they can lose the funding and it will be open to other offices to tender for that funding (thus in theory improving your service).

 

The aims and principles of the CAB are

 

 

 

The Citizens Advice service aims:

 

To provide the advice people need for the problems they face.

To improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.

The service provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination.

 

Our equality and diversity strategy

Whoever you are, whatever the problem – a short publication celebrating our achievements in equality, diversity and human rights.

 

If you feel they are not achieving these (and that was taken from the CAB website) then you are definitely in a position to complain.