CAB - Can you help them?

FestivalsRUS

I wrote to the CAB, telling them that I help my family and friends out (Because of all the tips I got from here) reducing gas, leccy, insurance bills etc etc etc. And being disabled I said I would happily volunteer to help others out through the CAB in reducing their bills.

They said they are desperate for people like me to help people out.

So, if you are interested, give your CAB a bell and see what they can come up with.

Once my CRB check is through, I will start around January for a few hours a week

Thank you Martin for all your valuable tips:beer::beer::beer::beer:

GlasweJen

I used to volunteer for CAB, I was a benefits advisor. I quit because I was being forced to spend my time helping a shirkster appeal a DLA award, he was a member of the local running club and was trying to claim that he was unable to walk 100m without severe discomfort, the final straw was when he placed top 10 in a 10K that had professional athletes in it and won a substantial amount in prize money. I showed the article from the paper to the boss and she said "maybe this was a good day".

I gave up after that, I wasn't going to spend my free time helping others commit benefit fraud (and this guy was far from the only one trying it).

Jacks_xxx

:T Working for the C.A.B. is a great way to volunteer. I'd recommend it to anyone.

PipsoG

I was a volunteer and subsequently paid staff with CAB for nearly 20 years. They are a brilliant organisation. The problem now is that they have to spend too much time with administration and therefore see less clients!

Local authorities and the largest funders for CAB and as their budgets get cut it has a knock-on affect as the CAB receives less money and therefore cannot open in the same way. Therefore CAB managers are looking for funding form more and more sources which time and effort with minimal results.

Yes there are people who try to defraud the system but all CAB volunteers are non-judgemental and vetted and trained to maintain that independent outlook.

Newspapers content cannot always be believed - and people with disabilities have good and bad days as we all do.

It is a cliche but you can't judge a book by its cover and what happened to giving the benefit of the doubt? To go give up doing good work helping other because of one client seems a little drastic.

alwaysonthego_2

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GlasweJen

It wasn't one client, it was several over a substantial period of time. The newspaper article just backed up what I already knew - my dad was the running club organiser. Client had never had any problems being part of the elite team that was training for marathons, he spent hours at the gym and he was subsequently awarded DLA high mobility. Last year he was all over the news for defrauding incapacity benefit (he'd been on that forever) and the high mobility DLA (had been on it, been denied it at review, appealed, got it so i think it was 6 or 7 years worth), guess how they found out? He was in the local paper for running 3 marathons in 3 weeks. The sob story was that he was claiming benefits because he looked after his mum and couldn't live on carers allowance. I'm sure there was a thread in the arms about him when it happened, I never commented on it though because of my indirect involvement in it.

Other people who wanted DLA forms filled in would answer questions like "so how far can you walk?" with "just put down enough to get me a blue badge hen", or "can you cook a meal for yourself?" with "aye, I do all the cooking but say no cos I wont get any money if I tell them that".

I just gave up, I now volunteer for the local credit union and I am training to do phone support for the samaritans - both much more worthy of my time.

leemack

GlasweJen wrote: »

I used to volunteer for CAB, I was a benefits advisor. I quit because I was being forced to spend my time helping a shirkster appeal a DLA award, he was a member of the local running club and was trying to claim that he was unable to walk 100m without severe discomfort, the final straw was when he placed top 10 in a 10K that had professional athletes in it and won a substantial amount in prize money. I showed the article from the paper to the boss and she said "maybe this was a good day".

I gave up after that, I wasn't going to spend my free time helping others commit benefit fraud (and this guy was far from the only one trying it).

Wow, did you have bad management at that place, it suggests a strange sort of naivete. Our policy in that situation is to confront the client and explain we would not be able to assist him further in that matter. Of course it is unusual to have such clear cut evidence in a DLA case. Mostly, its with things like noticing an extra income on their bankstatements, or that they pay mortgage for two houses, or have savings they haven't declared - in these cases we offer to help them disclose to the DWP/council etc, and deal with the overpayment etc, but if they refuse then bye, bye.

Of course some of the job is helping people who have commited fraud - for instance advising on benefit law, sitting in on IUC's, making sure that any overpayments have been calculated correctly, and appealing if necessary.

hethmar

"I said I would happily volunteer to help others out through the CAB in reducing their bills."

Bless you Festival, but from my experience as a vollie at the CAB, very few clients will be calling up to ask for that sort of help. So dont be disappointed when you do go there. You may be able to do some filing and so on but to actually advise clients you would be training intensively for several months at least.

FestivalsRUS

hethmar wrote: »

"I said I would happily volunteer to help others out through the CAB in reducing their bills."

Bless you Festival, but from my experience as a vollie at the CAB, very few clients will be calling up to ask for that sort of help. So dont be disappointed when you do go there. You may be able to do some filing and so on but to actually advise clients you would be training intensively for several months at least.

Oh, I don't mind filing if that's all that happens - If I can keep some very small cogs turning and help them out, then what the heck :beer: