Bexley Borough Citizens Advice Bureaux then and now

70 years of advice in Bexley

1939 the start of Citizens Advice, The outbreak of World War II

Prelude As the storm clouds of war gathered over Europe in the late thirties, some people had learned the lessons from the Spanish Civil war, in that any war will have an effect on the general population. In 1938 The National Council of Social Services saw the need for a national advice service for the country. They drew together a conference of all the major social work agencies in the country including the London Council of Social Services. In July 1939 they issued a very long statement; “It is proposed that … Citizens’ Advice Bureaux [CABx] should be established throughout the country, particularly in the large cities and industrial areas where social disorganisation may be acute.” This led to 200 CABx opening on 4th September 1939, one opened on the third, Sidcup!

And in Bexley…

NEW WAR-TIME SERVICE AT BEXLEYHEATH

“A Citizens Advice Bureau has been set up at Bexley Heath as a result of a meeting called by the Mayor and held in the Council Chamber on Saturday morning. The following were appointed as a committee: Councillor A.R. Potter(chairman); Alderman Mrs Welch, representing the Borough of Bexley Trades and Labour Council; Mrs Bilney, Co-operative Women’s Guild; Mrs Romain, Kent County Social Services Association;

Mrs Cotton, British Legion (Bexley Heath and East Wickham Benevolent Committee); Mrs Franklin, British Legion Women’s Section; Mr O.F.C. Bromfield, Kent Education Committee; Mr Montague Garrett; Mrs Baker-Beall, J.P. hon. secretary, Soldiers’, Sailors’ & Airmen’s Families Association, and member of Dartford District War Pensions Committee; and Miss Ball, secretary, Kent Council of Social Service. The objects of the association, as explained by Mrs Streatfield, C.B.E.,J.P., chairman of the North West Kent Committee of the Kent Council of Social Services, are the helping of anyone in trouble in regard to house rent, mortgage repayments, or any difficulties arising through the unsettling conditions of the times. “ Extract from “Bexleyheath and Welling Observer” - 29th September 1939

“Plus ca change plus c'est meme chose “

Jean - Baptiste Alphonse Karr

What did you do during the War Dad?

The first Citizens Advice Bureaux were managed and staffed by people already engaged in social services work, many of them salaried and experienced workers. But these Bureaux soon needed many more workers, and towns that had no social services organisation needed Bureaux. “An army of people were recruited for the Service, many of them newcomers to social work, men and women from every walk of life –housewives, business men, teachers, workmen, retired civil servants and students all kinds of people ready to share their varied knowledge and experience with fellow citizens who needed it.” Extract from Citizens Advice Bureaux: A record of 5 years work published 1945 During the war about 10,000 people worked for the CAB about 90% of them were volunteers. The only thing that Bureaux had in common in the early days was the name. There were even some variation to that such as Citizens Advice and Help Bureau. In the first few

months of the war there were great variations between bureaux. “Having no experience on which to base the work, everything had to be done on a trial and error basis…” Extract from Newport (Gwent)CAB report 1940 “…information files were unknown. the service depended very much on the compassion and knowledge of the person in charge but, believe me they did excellent work…” Extract from an account of Crediton CAB 1940

An enquiry from 1943 “Women enquirer, My husband was killed in last night’s raid; house was slightly damaged, my brother and sister in law living next door were also killed. Can I get any help towards the

burial costs?, What can I do about repairing my house? Should I take action regarding my brother’s destroyed house, with regard to compensation?.”

By 1943 Bureaux were receiving circulars from National Council for Social Services these included; Restriction on Access to Coastal Towns, Application for replacement of lost clothing coupons, Simplified Army Pay and Towels (Special rations for priority users). It was not until 1957 that Citizens Advice took over responsibility for providing information circulars to Bureaux. And After When hostilities ended there was a marked drop off in the requirement for the service, between May 1945

and May 1946, 224 CABx closed, 70% of them because of a lack of enquiries. By 1953 the number of Bureaux had halved from a high point of 1074 in 1942, the national body was no longer funded by the government. Funding to the national organisations was restored in 1960. There are now about 425 CABx in England and Wales and they helped 1.7 million people last year dealing with 6 million enquiries. And in Bexley Bexley CAB started in Red Lodge in Sidcup Place in Sidcup, little survives apart from this certificate. The Bureaux have moved around the Borough, at one time there were five Bureaux, we were finally amalgamated to the existing two some 15 years ago, when Bexleyheath moved to its existing premises. Erith moved to its current premises 5 years ago. Open Door Advice This much used phrase in the CAB, describes the first open door session at Newport CAB, who had to have the door open to work as there was no light because of the black out curtains and they had no electricity.

Bexley Borough Citizens Advice Bureaux Limited

Annual review 2008-2009

In these difficult times people turn to the CAB for help and assistance, very much as they did 70 years ago during the War. The figures do not tell the whole story. During the past year the number of clients we have seen has remained about the same as the year before. The main reason behind this is that the Bureaux were working at full capacity already. The underlying theme is that people’s

problems are getting more complex. For example, in 2007-08 our clients had £7m worth of debt now they have £14m worth of debt. The Service is well thought of by the Government. We are key to both the introduction of Debt Relief Orders and giving independent money advice for Mortgage Rescue Schemes, I have just one plea, if the Government wants to

give us extra work, could they please give us some extra money. This year the Bureaux helped 16000 people. I would like to thank everybody for their hard work in the past year especially the volunteers, whether they are advisers, receptionists, admin workers or even Trustee Board members, they give their time freely, work hard and are the life blood of our service.

Recession Year One Chair’s Report by John Pegg, Chair, Bexley Borough CAB

Extra Opening In response to the worsening financial conditions the Govern-ment decided to make extra funds available to Citizens Advice so that CAB could open for extra hours and see more clients. Bexley CABx were successful in obtaining part of the grant, £40,000. This has meant that both Bureaux have opened for an extra 2.5 hours per week since February 2009.

Audit During the past year the Bureaux underwent their tri-annual audit from Citizens Advice. The Bureaux passed the audit, the quality of advice score was well above the average for both the country and for London, Bureaux in London having a higher average score than the rest.

Elaine Rafter By John Pegg

After 25 years service as Manager of Erith Citizens Advice Bureau, Elaine retired in September 2008. Elaine really cared and worked tirelessly for the Bureau and for the best interests of the people of Erith. She will be missed and I would like to thank her on behalf of the Trustee Board for her hard work.

To say that debt advice over the last year has been a growth industry is something of an understatement. Thanks to the continuing support from Bexley Council together with the growth of the Capitalise Project, the bureaux now have three full time debt advisers – Femi Adedayo, Ray Wells and Sandra Baxter. During 2008/09 Ray was fully funded by Bexley Council, whilst Femi and Sandra were employed through Capitalise with funding from BERR. Between them they have taken on 683 new clients with total debt (excluding mortgage capital) of £14.2M. This is an average of nearly £21,000 of debt per client. Bexley has one of the highest levels of personal debts of any London Borough. It is interesting that in this recession the highest levels of debt are in the most ‘affluent boroughs’. If mortgage capital debt were added there would be a further £21.3m. This figure is far higher than the previous year and is an indication of the increasing number of clients with high mortgage debts and, in many cases, mortgage arrears. In about one third of these cases it has been possible to renegotiate payment plans on behalf of clients. This is a time consuming process as, very often, client’s

circumstances change after arrangements have been made which means going ‘back to the drawing board.’ About

10% of clients decided to petition for bankruptcy. The remainder were a mixture of assisted self help and cases where there was no clearly identifiable outcome. Clients have too often found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Unable to pay their debts but equally unable to raise the necessary fees to go bankrupt. The recent introduction of Debt Relief Orders (DRO) may help some of these clients with ‘modest’ levels of debt, no assets and little surplus income. Both Ray and Femi are Registered Intermediaries for DROs. Ray also continues to provide a service at The Dartford County Court working alongside the Duty Solicitor Scheme to offer advice and advocacy to defendants facing possession claims. With the introduction of mortgage pre action protocols has slowed the progress of possession claims for mortgage arrears. However this often means that when cases do get to court the arrears are higher and the options fewer. The economic climate is more difficult than most of us have ever experienced and our clients continue to suffer. We all hope that the coming year will show some improvement but none of us are in any doubt as to the challenges ahead.

Money Advice Report By

Ray Wells

Income £

L.B Bexley Grant 186071 Capitalise (BERR) - Debt Advice 75461

Additional Hours 3682 L.B Bexley - Debt Advice 32500 Donations 663 Bank Interest 5039 Other Income 310 Total Income 303726 Expenditure Staff Costs 258938 Establishment & Volunteer Costs 28265 Total Expenditure 287203 Net movement of funds 16524

Reserves B/fwd from 2007-8 48627 Closing Balance @ 31st March 2008 65151 A full set of examined accounts is avail-

able on request from our Registered Office at 50 Pier Rd, Erith, DA8 1TA

Tel: 01322 357936

Summary of Annual Accounts as at

31st March 2009

Trustees wanted Bexley Borough CAB is a company limited by guarantee, governed by a Trustee Board. A trustee is a volunteer, each individual trustee brings skills and qualities to the board and add to the collective knowledge and experience by providing: - Commitment and availability to attend 4 meetings per year plus sitting on sub-committees. For further information please call 01322 357936

The Figures and What they Mean

It can be seen from the pie chart that most people who come in to the Citizens Advice Bureau have money problems. The number of enquiries in each subject area is very similar to last year. During the last year we have probably been in our best position ever in terms of providing money advice in that we have had three paid workers, this has meant that the number

of people we were able to take on as debt clients has increased. Employment is an area where the nature of enquiries seems to have changed and the number of people consulting us with redundancy related problems has increased by over 50%. About 2% of our clients have

immigration problems, unfortunately we can only deal with these at a basic level. There is no provision in Bexley for help with complex immigration issues, either in the voluntary or commercial sector.

Debt37%

Benefits21%

Employment11%

Housing8%

Family6%

Other17%

ANNUAL STATISTICS 2008/9

Social Policy Report Evidence not Opinion

An equally important part of the CAB’s work , is to collect data on social policy issues. The government funds Citizens Advice partly for the Social Policy work that it does, they welcome reports prepared by Citizens Advice, with evidence that is collected from Bureaux. Because of the nature and scale of its work Citizens Advice is an excellent source of information. If a piece of legislation is causing a problem advisers are first to know, after all we see nearly 2 million people a year. Citizens Advice takes a role in influencing Government policy. Following

reports from Citizens Advice two important and very different pieces of legislation were brought in. The first the Tenancy Deposit scheme, ensured that private landlords put their tenant’s deposits into a separate independently controlled fund. CABx had seen many clients who could not get their deposits back from landlords at the end of their tenancy without resulting to costly and lengthy litigation. The second was the setting up of an enforcement body for Employment Tribunal awards. CABx were seeing increasing numbers of clients who had been awarded money at ETs and then being unable to get the

monies from their previous employer, without resorting to litigation. Having received reports and information from Citizens Advice the government decided to create an enforcement body for these awards. This is all possible because at a local level an adviser sees a client with a problem, the advisers’ sense of justice is outraged, they make a social policy report in their Bureau , which is sent to Citizens Advice, many other advisers do the same thing; then Citizens Advice can present evidence not opinion to decision makers.

CONTACT US ERITH CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU 50 Pier Road, Erith Kent DA8 1TA

Drop in Sessions No appointment necessary

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

9.30 9:30 9:30 Closed 9:30

- - - -

12:30 12:30 12:30 12:30

BEXLEYHEATH CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU 8 Brampton Road, Bexleyheath Kent DA7 4EY

Drop in Sessions No appointment necessary

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

10:00 11:30 10:00 11:30 Closed

- - - -

13:00 14:00 13:00 14:00

Telephone Enquiries 01322 357933

Telephone Enquiries 020 8303 5100

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

13:30 13:30 13:30 10:00 13:30

15:30 15:30 15:30 13:00 15:30

- - - —-

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

13:00 10:00 13:00 10:00 10:00

- - - - -

14:45 11:45 14:45 11:45 12:30

Outreach Sessions Thamesmead Library

Thu 14:00 - 15:30

Outreach Sessions Sidcup Library

Mon 13:30 - 15:15 Barnard Health Centre

Wed 13:45 - 15:30

Bexley Borough Citizens Advice Bureaux Ltd Registered Office 50 Pier Road, Erith, Kent DA8 1TA Charity Registration No 275955 Company Limited by Guarantee Registered No 1368988 (England)

www.adviceguide.org.uk

Aims and Principles of Citizens Advice Bureaux The Citizens Advice service provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. The service aims to provide the advice people need for the problems they face and to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.

E-mail Advice advice@erithcab.org.uk

www.erithcab.org.uk