486 CAB debt advisers face redundancy

fatbelly

...those funded by the government's Financial Inclusion Fund. See the following letter prepared by the CAB

Engaging MPs on the Future of FIF Funding

I know that you are as concerned as we are that we have not yet received any indication from Government concerning the future of the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) beyond 31st March 2011.

I am writing to let you know that we are endeavouring to secure an urgent meeting with Mark Hoban, the Economic Secretary to HM Treasury and Edward Davey, the BIS Minister responsible for employment relations, consumer and postal affairs in order to discuss the grave situation facing local debt advice services delivered with support from the Financial Inclusion Fund. We are also briefing the media about this potential large scale withdrawal of essential frontline services.

As you are no doubt aware, the FIF debt advice services were established five years ago, and were deliberately located in areas which are very deprived and to meet the needs of communities that had difficulty accessing debt advice. The vision at the start of the programme was to bring about a ‘step change’ in the availability of face to face debt advice services and the previous government committed to mainstream these services in due course. Every year, the FIF debt advice services have directly helped over 100,000 people a year to resolve their debt problems. Regular audits and evaluations have found very high levels of customer satisfaction, services exceeding clients’ expectations and effectively reaching the intended groups of clients.

Indeed our own statistics tell us that demand for debt advice is certainly not declining and could increase further under certain conditions. In 2009/10 the Citizens Advice Service assisted 580,000 people with 2.4 million debt problems, an increase in problems of 23%, as clients attended appointments with increasingly complex debt problems. In 2010, 1.4 million people have received advice from charities such as National Debtline, Citizens Advice and CCCS – one in every 33 UK adults.

If the FIF debt advice services are forced to close at the end of March, as seems increasingly likely, we are not sure what alternatives sources of help would be suitable for the clients we serve. By definition, the FIF services are used by people with very low incomes and limited means. Their inability to repay substantial amounts towards any consumer credit debts means that private sector debt management services do not see them as a profitable client group to serve. Our research has found that there is very little overlap and duplication between the national telephone advice services and the local FIF services, with clients using the local services; often on referral from other local agencies such as Jobcentres, landlords and councils and having problems or communication needs requiring an element of face to face delivery. We are not therefore sure where the thousands of clients currently helped by the FIF debt advice services will be able to receive equivalent help if the FIF services close.

I am aware that some of you have already begun briefing your MPs and media contacts about the impact of the potential loss of FIF funding on your ability to provide a debt advice service to your clients. Indeed, for many of you, your MP has relied upon being able to refer people to your services, and as such, would need to be informed about any changes in your capacity to help their constituents. Therefore, at this difficult time, I am inviting everyone to step up our efforts in this area. If you haven’t already done so, please join us in raising political awareness of the impact of the potential loss of FIF funding with your local elected representatives and local media.

You may find it helpful to highlight to your MP how the potential loss of FIF funding would impact your delivery of a debt advice service to local people. For example, you may want to share with your MP the following information:

• The number of debt clients you have helped in the past year.
• The typical level of debt held by your clients.
• When you anticipate having to close your FIF service to new clients.
• What other options exist locally for people seeking advice and the anticipated impact on other debt advice services in your area (if any). For example, is it possible that more people experiencing financial difficulties will now be turning to their MP for help?
• The financial impact on your organisation of the potential loss of FIF funding.
• How the loss of FIF funding may impair and impact your ability to provide other services to local people in the future.
• You may also wish to refer to the impact of unmanaged debt on people’s lives.

To help you, I have enclosed two FIF related publications that you may wish to share with your MP or other interested parties. Further copies of these documents are available to download from the FIF pages on CABLink. The two publications are

• “Over-indebtedness on a low income. An investigation into the impact of the Citizens Advice Financial Inclusion Fund face-to-face debt advice programme, 2006–09”, and
• “Face-to-face debt advice – at the heart of local community support services. A survey of users of Financial Inclusion Fund Debt Advice Services.”

Finally, it is clear that the current uncertainty around the future of the FIF programme is having a substantial impact on the ability of FIF participant organisations to deliver a debt advice service. The delayed announcement concerning the future of the FIF programme means that by the end of December, 20 money advisers had already left the Citizens Advice programme and at this stage it is estimated that 75% of the workforce is involved in a formal redundancy process. This is a large scale redundancy programme which affects an overall workforce in excess of 900 paid staff in a variety of roles in voluntary organisations, including a core professional group of 486 trained money advisers. Please be assured that we endeavour to ensure that Government are fully aware of the consequences of their ongoing delay in addressing this matter.

If you write to your MP, please do share with your FIF Project Manager any response that you may receive. I shall keep you informed of any further developments in respect of the future of FIF funding, as soon as it becomes available.

fermi

Who is CAB sending that out to?

fatbelly

fermi wrote: »

Who is CAB sending that out to?

It's buried on CABLINK, dated 18 Jan - I came across it when looking for news on whether the contracts are to be extended. Says it's to FIF participants

fermi

Makes sense now I've read it through properly.

Thanks for that.

fatbelly

I think technically my headline is wrong - not all FIF-funded debt advisers are within the Citizens Advice sphere, although that is the case in the area where I live.

fermi

Wherever they are, it would still be an utter disaster.

fatbelly

It's already having an impact. These people are under notice of redundancy (a few have already left as the letter says) and are now being told not to take new clients but wind down their case load.

For the first time I can remember my Bureau is now telling people that we can only signpost them to CCCS/Payplan unless they meet the criteria for Legal Help. We face losing two workers.

lynzpower

this is disgusting, I cannot believe what this country is coming to.

Thanks for bringing it to peoples attention, every moneysaver needs to know that this is happening

Tixy

Not Good.

Hope your job is secure fatbelly.

[Deleted User]

looks like some mse forums will be extra busy this year !

fatbelly

Tixy wrote: »

Not Good.

Hope your job is secure fatbelly.

For now....

My post is funded by the LSC, but that means that lots of people don't qualify to see me. The FIF criteria were much wider.

And there are moves to further limit eligibility under LSC rules.