Citizens Advice South Staffordshire is an independent, registered charity and member of the national association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, known as Citizens Advice. South Staffordshire Citizens Advice has continued. enhance its reputation for providing excellent service to the community. South Staffordshire Council supports the Citizens Advice service with core funding, but financial constraints have necessitated changes to the new Service Level Agreement.
In October 2015, Citizens Advice was named Charity of the Year at the Charity Times Awards. Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “Together we make a real difference to our clients' lives for the better. South Staffordshire Citizens Advice has been serving communities in the county since our establishment in 2000.
Almost 100% of the clients surveyed said they were happy or very satisfied with the information and advice they received and would use Citizens Advice again. 100% of the clients surveyed said they would recommend using Citizens Advice to others.
Our Volunteers
I first started at Wyre Forest CAB, but 4 years ago moved to South Staffs CAB, which is closer to home. The two bureaus are quite different in the way they operate, but the end goal is the same, the client comes first. The feeling between the volunteers and staff is mutual; we are there to help others solve their problems, big or small and we are one big happy family working together.
Our specialist debt and benefits advisers, branch manager, office manager and volunteer supervisor are all paid staff, as they should be. During the last year they put in an average of 92 unpaid hours per week on behalf of the bureau and it should be noted that the paid equivalent for this contribution is estimated at over £80,000 per annum. Our volunteers are essential to the way we deliver our service, enabling us to reach many more people.
Volunteer Christine’s Story
CASE STUDY
By working with our partners, we can share information and resources and offer a strong system of support options to help our customers and the local community. The Staffordshire Partnership, an umbrella group bringing together key local agencies from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors. South Staffs Work Clubs is an independent charity working in partnership with local agencies to provide access to a network of advice and support services for local residents.
Partnership Working
We support the concept of the County Council's 'Goodlife' hub, which is a platform accessible via the web or phone that provides people with information about activities, social groups, events and more. It makes it easier to find what's available and available locally and helps people live healthier and more fulfilled lives. We recognize the strong connection between receiving advice and the health and well-being of our clients.
We are also a Healthwatch Champion organization which enables us to raise awareness for our customers to have a voice for feedback on their concerns and experiences of health and social services in Staffordshire. This role is vital to improving local services by prioritizing matters that really matter to our customers in the local area. The role of the village agent is to extend community involvement and sustain villages for the future.
They also act as a point of contact between the community and local organizations including Citizens Advice, and indeed we receive referrals from South Staffordshire Village Agents to our Floating Adviser/Home Visiting Service, allowing us to reach isolated people needing advice in dispersed rural communities. . Through this project between the Beth Johnson Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support, we receive from and send referrals to the local advocacy coordinator to provide support to those affected by cancer. Our Floating Advisor / Home Visit Service provides vital support to people who are unable to travel due to their health or treatment they are receiving, helping them access our service and the advice and support they need.
Floating Adviser and Home Visiting Service
Some Clients’ Comments…
She suffers from mental health problems and is solely dependent on Employment and Support Allowance. To help with her water debts, we made an application to the Big Difference Scheme on her behalf. BDS is a joint venture between Citizens Advice and Severn Trent Water to help people get a discount on their utility bills if they are struggling to pay them after paying for food and other essentials).
We then helped the client claim discretionary housing payments to help cover the shortfall in her housing costs caused by the bedroom tax and negotiated with the Tax Credits office to set up an affordable payment plan in small installments so that it overpayments could be addressed. Client was referred to our floating counselor service by the Community Mental Health Team at Codsall Lodge. He is dependent on disability benefits and received Disability Living Allowance to help with his care needs and Employment Support Allowance as his illness means he has a limited capacity to work.
He received a new complicated application form to complete in order to continue receiving the employment support he depends on to live. The client's illness meant he was unable to complete the application form or fully understand the implications it would have on his income. We were able to give him detailed help to complete the form whilst checking that all his benefit allocations were correct and that he received all the help and support he was entitled to.
We carried out some specialist investigations on his behalf and found that he missed out on important enhanced and severe disability awards that he should have received over the past year as part of his current application for Employment and Support Allowance. We contacted the DWP and Jobcentre Plus and asked them to correct this error, they duly acknowledged this and sent out another application form to claim. The result was that our client was awarded £3,629.89 backdated Employment and Support Allowance and an ongoing payment of £177.80 per week ahead.
He called us to say he had never been happier and would never have known he was entitled to this vital money if it hadn't been for Citizens Advice.
Statistics are shown below for each outreach/outlet
How we helped in 2015—16
Perton
To help further measure the health-related outcomes of our consultancy, we used the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well Being Survey tool. This assesses changes in mental wellbeing before and after advice and assigns each person a score ranging from 7 to 35. This research illustrates the powerful links between receiving advice and the health and wellbeing of our clients.
By helping people relieve stress and anxiety, people gain more control over their circumstances and can rebuild their lives.
Money Advice Report
A CASE STUDY
Money Advice Report (continued)
Since the last report, the Big Difference Severn Trent scheme has been widely used for the benefit of Severn Trent Water users who are offered a discounted rate if it can be shown that they are in financial difficulty, even if they have no specific debts. . During the year our customers saved £2,410.84 on their water bills through the Big Difference Scheme.
Dafydd Barnes Money Adviser
Some clients’ comments…
Some problems are too difficult to solve with advice alone when it is a systemic problem with a market, policy or set of regulations. By listening carefully to the people who come to us, using our real-time data, and gathering insights and data from clients and advisors, we spot emerging issues and policies, practices and regulations that are not benefiting society at the first level. We also join together in campaigns as the Citizens Advice network: together we have a voice to make a real difference.
We continue to issue Bureau Evidence Forms (BEFs) for long-standing issues – communication issues with HMR&C, mismanagement of ESAs and PIPs – as well as new issues that our clients are experiencing and where patterns are emerging. This includes clients who we have helped to settle debts in the past, who have mental health problems, alcohol or drug addiction, and who have been late with their rent payments because the compensation was not paid directly to the landlord. Schemes to help low-income and vulnerable customers with energy costs do not work satisfactorily, as some who meet the criteria of an individual energy supplier are not helped because of the annual.
During an hour and a half meeting, a wide range of topics were discussed, including the similarities between the problems his constituents bring to his operations and the problems our clients experience. He confirmed that HMR&C's extremely poor performance in communicating both income tax and tax credits is well known to him. There are also concerns among MPs about both the Financial Services Ombudsman and the Parliamentary and Health Service.
Research and Campaigns Report
Ken Dean
Research & Campaigns Coordinator
Pension Wise
Throughout 2015/2016 our funding from South Staffordshire Council for our core service and Staffordshire County Council for face-to-face appointments remained at the same level. South Staffordshire Partnership (SSP) funding for our floating advisor and home visiting project has been increased by £14,000 to expand the service. Funds were also received from Councilor K James through the District Councilors Fund and these funds were used to purchase a new laptop computer for use during the Perton outreach advice sessions.
Funding Report
Funding Report (continued)
Thank you to all our supporters
SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE CITIZENS ADVICE
