Welfare benefit enquiries up by 12% says Exeter CAB

Local charity Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau today publishes its latest advice trend statistics, which show that it helped 3,300 people directly with advice on 14,040 problems, an increase of 1.3%, so far this financial year.

This year, the charity is helping clients with a debt burden of £5.5m, up by 28.3% or £1.2m from last year.

There was a 12% increase in enquiries about welfare benefits and tax credits; such as employment and support allowance, disability living allowance and problems with housing benefit and council tax benefit. On average, each client receiving specialist advice gained by over £1,800 per annum.

Debt and money problems rose by two per cent, including credit cards, unsecured loans and overdrafts, and enquiries about bankruptcy and debt relief orders. The average value of debt per client stood at £13,041; with the average amount owed to each creditor standing at £2,292, an increase of £295 on the previous year.

Exeter CAB Chief Executive Steve Barriball, said: “This is evidence that the human impact of the on-going economic difficulties are far from over for people who have lost their jobs or their homes, or both. Yet, there are hundreds more people missing out on welfare benefits, or struggling with debt and poverty, that we want to be able to assist.”

Exeter CAB is concerned by the impact of the Government reforms to the welfare system and changes to legal aid eligibility.

Steve continued: “We welcome many of the reforms that the Government is bringing in to simplify the benefits system and to ensure that work pays. However, some of the welfare reforms which are designed to make savings of £18bn by 2014 will see benefits cut for those most in need and for many working age households. This, coupled with reform of the legal aid system and recent Government announcements of further cuts to welfare spending, will mean that at a time when more people have an advice need, there will be less advice available to them. Our specialist advisers are increasing clients’ incomes by an overall £30,000 each week. However the welfare reforms and cuts to legal aid specialist services will make this more challenging next year.”

Steve finished by saying: “We are committed to provide the advice people need for the problems they face. However, we can only do this if we have the necessary resources to help people. We want to increase public and corporate donations so that we can continue to help local people. Anyone wishing to support our work can donate on-line by going to the Donation Support section of our website (www.exetercab.org.uk)”

Alternatively, donations can be made in person at the Bureau offices on King William Street in Exeter.

The top five advice issues so far this year are:

Advice area: Benefits and tax credits

1 April 2011 – 29 February 2012: 5075

1 April 2012 – 28 February 2013: 5730

Percentage change: +12.9%

Advice area: Debt / money

1 April 2011 – 29 February 2012: 4266

1 April 2012 – 28 February 2013: 4379

Percentage change: +2.6%

Advice area: Housing

1 April 2011 – 29 February 2012: 680