July has seen the end of Wiltshire Citizens Advice‘s (WCA) drop-in sessions in Marlborough. ‘For the foreseeable future’, they will no longer be setting up shop at the Quaker Meeting House in The Parade for four hours every Tuesday.
In a presentation to the Town Council (July 27), WCA’s Chief Executive, Sarah Cardy, explained the changes they were bringing in to enable more people to access their advice at the same time as making the necessary economies.
Last year WCA helped nearly 18,000 across the county and 150 of those people were seen at the Marlborough sessions – at a cost of about £45,000. As Marlborough News Online reported in April 2013 most of the interviews since the banking crisis and the recession concerned reduced hours and consequent debt problems as well as changes to the benefit system.
WCA are in the process of a major overhaul of their services. This has been brought about in part by a 14 per cent cut in their grant from Wiltshire Council – which has meant their annual budget is down from £1.8m to £1.4m.
They get £500,000 a year from Wiltshire Council and annual grants from the public health budget, from Macmillan Cancer Support, Wessex Water, Green Square as well as some other smaller grants.
The changes are also in part because austerity and changes to the welfare state have brought rising demands at the same time as their clients are turning to other ways of getting advice than the traditional face-to-face interview at a local Citizens Advice Bureau office: “Every change in legislation brings new challenges.”
Last year they had 23,000 calls to their telephone advice Line – and many people say they prefer phone calls to making the journey to offices. A face-to-face interview can cost £82, whereas the cost to the WCA budget for a phone interview is about £11.
A sign of the attitudes of people who need WCA’s help but are not keen to go to an office – or cannot get there – comes from the WCA’s experience in Corsham. They closed the office there and are now helping more people in the town than they did before.
However the switch to the telephone service is not proving easy – so far they are unable to answer 55 per cent of calls. But, on the positive side, 83 per cent of the answered calls are dealt with in full.
The WCA know that they need to extend the hours of their telephone service. They are planning to support their online advice with a webchat service – so people can ask an adviser then and there about problems. And they are starting to roll-out a home visiting service – building up a bank of home visitors.
They are now working with doctors’ surgeries in the four most deprived areas of Wiltshire, with Carer Support Wiltshire, with Macmillan Cancer Support and with other people working on the frontline.
All this needs money and volunteers and volunteers need training and that costs money. They are considering a scheme that would ask companies and shops to sponsor a volunteer.
[The nearest face-to-face sessions to Marlborough are now at the drop-in sessions in Devizes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (10.00am to 3.00pm.) Details on the WCA website.]
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