Maldon and District Citizens Advice Bureau
Annual Report
2014
Cover Imageslicensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence Tollesbury Marina © Copyright Malc McDonald;
Tip of Pewet Island from Bradwell-on-Sea, with Blackwater Estuary © Copyright Guy Erwood;
Thames sailing barges - Maldon © Copyright John Winfield;
Maldon and Church from the promenade walk © Copyright John Allen
Aims and Principles
We aim to:
• provide the advice people need for the problems they face The Citizens Advice service offers information and advice through face-to-face, phone and email services, and online via
Adviceguide.org.uk.
• improve the policies and practices that affect people's lives.
We're not just here for times of crisis - we also use clients' stories anonymously to campaign for policy changes that benefit the population as a whole.
Our Principles
The four principles to help fulfil our aims are that the service is:-
• Free- There is no direct cost to the client
• Confidential- Client’s details are not disclosed
• Independent- From funders and agencies that we may work with
• Impartial -Advice is given without bias
Maldon & District Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has been giving advice to local residents since 1985 as a member of the national organisation of Citizens Advice.
Maldon & District CAB is a registered charity and relies on trained volunteers to provide vital services to our community, helping people resolve problems affecting all areas of their lives.
You can help by . . .
• Volunteering- We are always looking for help in a variety of roles.
• Remembering us in your will- Legacy gifts are exempt from Inheritance Tax.
• Using ‘Give as you live’- When shopping on-line at no cost to you.
• Donating money or services- To support our volunteer network.
Thanks to our funders and supporters
Officers and Members of Maldon District Council for financial support and accommodation Officers and Members of Essex County Council for financial support
High Sheriff Fund for an award to help keep people safe by raising awareness of scams
Dengie Amateur Music Group for financial support
All clients and supporters who have been generous in making donations
Tim Steele of Palmers Solicitors and Carol Robinson of Levy’s Solicitors for providing free weekly surgeries for our clients Colin Pocknell for examining our accounts
Catherine Garrett for design and publicity services
Chair’s Report
When we reflect on the past twelve months it can only be said that change and challenges have dominated the year. For the first four months of the financial year 2013/14 the Bureau did not have a Manager and as a result there was much to be achieved in a fairly tight timeframe during the balance of the year.
It is pleasing to report that in July 2013 we were able to appoint two members of the bureau, Lucy Bettley and Mary Edwards, as the Management Team. The original role of Bureau Manager has now been divided to provide services for Operations and
Governance/Fundraising. This has enabled us to strengthen our relationship with Maldon District Council while ensuring that we maintain the services for the community that we serve.
The Trustees can confirm that numerous applications for additional funding have been made in the eight months the Management Team has been in place. However despite their efforts the Bureau recorded a deficit during the financial year 2013/14 of £11,992.We continue to seek additional funding for 2014/15 and beyond.
We have seen a growing body of evidence emerge to suggest that the age of austerity, far from winding down in good time for the 2015 general election, may mean funding will continue to be squeezed until 2020, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research
The budget for the financial year 2014/15 indicates that unless additional funding is achieved there will be an operating deficit of expenditure in excess of income in the region of £20,000. This will place the provision of services at risk.
The Bureau will continue to drive up levels of service and do all that it can to cope with any increases in demand plus the added complexity of problems. We also need to ensure that we have sufficient financial reserves not only for good practice but also to finance the anticipated expenditure that will be required to move the Bureau premises in Maldon before March 2015. An assessment also needs to be made of the potential outcome and impact upon the Bureau if Maldon District Council commissions services and there is a competitive bidding process.
We are active participants in Essex Citizens Advice Bureau which is open to all bureaux in the county to work in partnership together to bid for and deliver larger and wider spread contracts for services within the county.
The Maldon Bureau will also concentrate on building partnerships with key funders and charities and review the way in which we deliver services within our community while ensuring that we make every effort to meet needs that may exist.
I would like to thank the members of Maldon District Council plus the other supporters of Maldon & District CAB for their continued support of the Bureau which provides us with the financial stability we need. Without this support the Bureau would cease to exist.
Finally I have to thank all those involved in the Bureau, our new Management Team, the Staff and Volunteers without whom we would not be able to provide our service, and of course my fellow Trustees for all their support.
David J Pickles
Chair of Trustees
2
Managers’ report.
Activity
Our Bureau played a central role in the lives of residents of the Maldon District, advising 6% of the adult population. We saw over 3,000 clients and advised on nearly 10,000 issues. The highest number of enquiries related to benefits (34%), followed by debt (26%), employment (9%), housing (9%), and relationships (6%). It is the aim of the Bureau always to give holistic advice and so with many clients we will be covering a variety of issues. An initial problem has a ripple effect causing complications in all areas of our clients’ lives.
Service Delivery
We have continued to ensure that the Bureau is open on five days a week for both face-to-face and telephone advice. In addition, our outreach services take the form of weekly surgeries in Burnham and Southminster and home visiting.
We have increased the use of Gateway, empowering clients to resolve their own problems while providing the reassurance of additional support from the Bureau should this be needed. Gateway was introduced by Citizens Advice in 2011 to address long queues in waiting rooms. Clients with a new problem are first given a brief interview to provide details of their situation and for questions to be asked. Over half of these Gateway assessments end with the client being provided with information on which to act. This can work particularly well for clients on the telephone who have a computer.
An adviser can talk through information on www.adviceguide.org.uk while a client is looking at the website at home.
Other clients who either have a complex problem or need extra help will then be seen for full or specialist advice. Gateway means that resources are used to their best effect, to the benefit of all our clients.
Client Satisfaction Survey In the annual client
satisfaction survey carried out in May, 100% of our clients stated that they were either very happy or
happy with the
information and advice they were given and also with the service they received.
Funding
In order to survive, the Bureau has to continually look for ways to generate income to develop and maintain the free advice services it provides. We currently have a Service Level Agreement with Maldon District Council which provides a substantial part of the funding necessary to run the Bureau, but the balance has to be sourced from elsewhere.
Few people realise that the CAB is a charity. Overcoming this is crucial both for the national body and for Maldon
& District CAB. Whenever the Bureau managers are invited to attend community events or to speak to groups they stress the charitable status of the Bureau. The CAB is the first port of call for local residents facing a crisis and therefore is THE charity for our community. It is the essential message to get across if we are to be successful in attracting donations, grants and legacies.
Volunteers
Maldon & District CAB relies on its volunteer workforce for everything from advising to account auditing, Gateway assessing to graphic designing and campaigning to computer maintenance.
Altogether the volunteer hours worked in our
4
You helped give me some perspective regarding what I can do
and need to do in my current situation - no
judgement just advice! Thanks!
12%
WickhamBishops&Woodham
TolleshuntD’Arcy
Tollesbury
Tillingham
Southminster
Purleigh
Mayland
MaldonWest
MaldonSouth
MaldonNorth
MaldonEast
HeybridgeWest
HeybridgeEast
GreatTotham
Burnham-on-CrouchSouth
Burnham-on-CrouchNorth
Althorne
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0
Percentage of Issues by ward
July 2013 - March 2014
‘‘ ‘‘
Bureau are valued at £388,000 (Office of National Statistics), providing a service which is amazing value for money. The worth of our volunteers is measurable not only in financial terms but also in the effort they put into making other people’s lives better. Working at the Bureau is not an easy job; it is usually rewarding and interesting but can be frustrating, stressful or upsetting. As such we recognise and really appreciate the commitment our volunteers make to helping local residents resolve the problems they face.
Working with other agencies
We see it as crucial that the Bureau does not work in isolation, and during the year have met with representatives of many agencies such as One Support and Village Agents. Closer working relationships were fostered with Maldon District Council, particularly with
their Housing Department.
One of our advisers spent time with their officers to understand the way they work and the challenges they face and shadowed a Moat Housing officer on home visits, thereby creating a useful link between the organisations.
The Bureau became part of the Health and Wellbeing
Partnership and the Homelessness Forum working with other agencies to the benefit of local
residents.
Working with other bureaux
Maldon & District CAB is increasingly involved with other bureaux. We share training and ideas about best practice to enhance our service and meet at all levels with our colleagues in other bureaux within the county.
Essential Living Fund
Changes to welfare support brought the
introduction of a localised scheme to help residents facing crises in the form of provision of pre-pay cards or furniture. The Bureau acts as a collection point for the pre-pay cards and offers recipients advice to try to resolve the underlying cause of the crisis situation and prevent recurrence.
34% - Benefits & Tax Credits 3% - Consumer Goods & Services
9% - Employment
2% - Financial Products & Services 9% - Housing
4% - Legal
7% - Relationships & Family 6% - Other
inc Immigration, Health, Travel, Referals etc.
26% - Debt
Percentage of client issues dealt with
Changes in the Bureau
PETRA
The Citizens Advice new record keeping software programme PETRA was introduced during the year involving considerable amounts of training for all staff. This national database has advantages over its localised predecessor, in particular with its reporting capability, and also in working with clients who move home from one area toanother. As with all major changes in IT there have been challenges. Citizens Advice are working to overcome problems with this new system.
Staff
The year saw the retirement of several long-standing staff. Ken Harris played a key role in the Bureau as manager for many years and then stayed on as a volunteer caseworker. Barry Cox joined the Bureau as our debt specialist, a role he later combined with manager. They were both respected by their many clients and are missed by colleagues.
Diana Adams retired from her post as our outreach worker looking after clients in Burnham, Southminster and rural villages but continues to volunteer, putting her huge experience to good use working mainly on benefit appeals.
This year the role of bureau manager has been divided into two. Mary Edwards was appointed with responsibility for finance and governance and Lucy Bettley with responsibility for operations. Two experienced advisers, Fiona Nelmes and Derek Hall, have taken on the outreach and home visiting role which they combine with their other work as volunteer benefit and employment caseworkers.
We look forward to an exciting and challenging year ahead.
Lucy Bettley and Mary Edwards
6
Social Policy Report
This year saw the launch of the official Maldon CAB Twitter feed. One use of the Twitter account, which went live in January, is to publicise our Outreach sessions in Burnham and Southminster, but Twitter has also proved useful in pushing our campaign messages.
For instance, during Big Energy Saving Week, our Social
Policy Campaigner Rhiannon Ashley kept up a constant stream of tweets offering tips on how to save money on energy bills. The whole campaign was a great success, including Rhiannon visiting Parliament to help Citizens Advice lobby MPs on Energy Saving.
Our next campaign was Scams Awareness Month, in May. This started just as we were seeing a series of very nasty scams which resulted in vulnerable local people losing money, or indeed their life- savings. We seized the opportunity to raise awareness of doorstep, written, telephone and internet scams, encouraging people to get informed, take precautions and report their experiences to the Police.
As well as using Twitter in this campaign and featuring in the Maldon and Burnham Standard, Tim Lornie our most recent Social Policy Campaigner was also interviewed on the local radio station Saint FM.
Last September saw our first Food Bank Monitoring Project. Advisors were asked to record the underlying reason why each client needed a food voucher. This information went to Central Social Policy, who have been busy collating the data from across the country. It is grassroots work like this that enables Citizens Advice UK to make a hard-hitting impact in Westminster, providing the data to instruct their campaigning. So far the general conclusion seems to be that benefits delays are the big problem, but the research is ongoing.
The bread and butter part of our Social Policy work involves writing anonymised reports (Bureau Evidence Forms) and sending these to Central Social Policy, local MPs, etc. These reports highlight key social policy issues that are affecting Maldon clients. Benefits difficulties, debt, utilities, employment and housing issues dominate, with benefits issues accounting for 25% of the 200 reports written this year. Disability benefits in particular have caused clients problems due to poor decision-making and delays, particularly by medical
assesment agencies.
Looking ahead, we intend to make more use of our own locally collected data and analyse it for trends. A lot of the time our Social Policy campaigns and research stems from national Citizens Advice initiatives, but we also recognise that the Maldon District is
distinctive, with its own challenges and opportunities.
Gilly Lutton
Social Policy Co-ordinator
Tim Lornie
Social Policy Campaigner
8
Outreach Services
During the year, weekly surgeries continued to be run from Burnham Town Council offices and Southminster One Place. The availability of public transport to Maldon from outlying areas and the cost of making the journey for those with little money mean that the
outreach services are a lifeline for some of our clients. Although they can telephone the bureau many clients prefer to receive face-to-face advice and in some cases this is essential.
Home visits continue to be offered to more vulnerable clients, the majority of whom are elderly and less mobile. On average, there are six home visits per month throughout the Maldon District with initial referrals coming from the Maldon bureau. The Outreach service also receives funded referrals from Essex County Council for home visits.
At the Outreaches in Burnham and Southminster most of the advice given relates to benefits and debt with referrals being made to the specialists back in Maldon where appropriate. In general, home visits are made to assist clients in the completion of benefit forms and/or to make phone calls to benefit agencies.
Examples of advice given include a client with memory problems who came for the second time at Outreach having
contacted fifteen different online lenders many of whom were brokers and who charged an administration fee. Money which the client
couldn’t afford was being taken from her bank account. Assistance was given to the
client both at Outreach and at a
subsequent home visit to close her current bank account, open a new account, Excellent to get
the advice I needed without having to make
the bus journey to the bureau - it only runs once
a week from my village.
‘‘ ‘‘
identify the various brokers, terminate her loan applications and request refunds of any fees debited.
This client was not alone in being caught by hidden administration fees and social policy feedback has been given in each instance.
Another client was struggling to cope after having given up her job to care full time for her partner who had suffered a stroke and was left with mobility and cognitive disabilities. After a difficult journey on the bus from Burnham to Maldon to attend the Bureau with her
partner, the client was referred for home visits for help in claiming the
benefits which the family were now entitled to.
Reasons for earlier unsuccessful claims for
benefits were explained and a full benefit check carried out for the household, identifying immediate gains which helped to cover the period during which the more long-term benefits were being processed.
Fiona Nelmes
10
Employment
This year saw the introduction of a fully trained and experienced adviser supporting clients with employment concerns. The service is operating extremely well.
Many clients attend with problems where there has been a breakdown of communication with their employer; and these matters are often resolved through encouraging the client to talk informally with their employer about the issue that is worrying them.
This benefits both the client and the employer.
In cases where an employer may have acted unreasonably or illegally, a client may receive help through to the submission of an
Employment Tribunal claim.
Several noteworthy cases have been undertaken this year
•
Mr X worked part time for a local business. A new manager took over the shift rota and our client suddenly found himself left off the usual roster of duties on which he had worked for over 4 years. The employer argued that our client was not an ‘employee’and therefore had limited employment rights. The CAB helped the client with an Employment Tribunal claim which resulted in
over £5,000 being awarded as compensation for ‘unfair dismissal’.
•
Ms Z worked for a large local employer. After her maternity leave, the employer was reluctant to offer our client continued employment on part-time hours. The CAB advised the client on her employment rights and opportunities to work ‘flexibly’. We helped the client draft appropriate letters and, additionally, provided guidance on how to present her case in a number of meetings with her employer. The client was successful in getting a suitable job with hours that took account of her child-care needs.The amount of employment casework is increasing and if demand continues to be high we will have to consider developing extra resource to cope with the workload.
Derek Hall
12
•
Mr Y worked for a company just outside London which suffered loss of business through the economic downturn. Staff were given reduced hours of working but our client eventually became the only employee to continue on ‘short time’ working. The CAB advised the client over a period of 3-6 months – as initially the client was reluctant to do anything that would upset his employer.When the client became unable to meet the costs
of his mortgage etc. he decided to make an Employment Tribunal claim for ‘constructive dismissal’. The tribunal awarded the client
£27,000 for unpaid wages and additional compensation of a further £15,000+ is still being considered.
The information I have received has been
invaluable. I feel better inside and I now know my
rights and options.
CAB is a wonderful organisation.
‘‘ ‘‘
Homelessness Prevention
My role in the Bureau is to prevent homelessness by advising clients who have rent or mortgage arrears.
There has been a rise in the number of cases going to court and I have assisted in the completion of more defence and variation forms.
Housing associations vary in flexibility shown to clients. In one case, where a tenant left the property, her partner who had lived there with her and their children for over 20 years, the housing association would not transfer the tenancy to his name even though the rent arrears could have been cleared with support from Maldon District Council. It was disappointing that he was eventually evicted from that property. In a similar case with a different housing association, although the client was evicted at court, he was given time and the housing association did find him a new property to move into.
It is important to reassure clients that provided sustainable offers can be made to clear arrears, judges always wish to keep people in their homes if possible. A suspended possession order gives the landlord or housing association more security but also keeps people living in their home. If clients are instructed in court procedures and enabled, through budgeting advice, to make realistic offers towards arrears, they can attend court with more confidence. In two cases with very vulnerable clients I have attended court with them where I felt they were not mentally able to support their arguments.
The reduced support in legal aid has resulted in more clients seeking specialised help at the Bureau, and in these cases I sometimes work with other agencies such as the National Homelessness Advice Service, Civil Legal Advice Service and a solicitor based at Thurrock CAB.
Many clients are now able to get advice on debt from online sources. Additionally generalist advisers have been trained to deal with the simpler debt cases themselves so I tend to see the more complicated issues. An initial interview can take up to 3 hours. Clients have often been overwhelmed by the scale of their problems and enabling them to see the full picture or ‘wood for the trees’ is often the first step in moving forward. Priority lists can be drawn up and clients given action lists to undertake themselves. I have found that this has been successful both in managing my own workload and in giving the clients self-esteem.
Budgeting advice and financial capability is
becoming more central in the debt advice provided.
Changes in the level of Council Tax Support and the introduction of the “bedroom tax” have had an impact on clients’ disposable income. Likewise, there are more cases where adult children continue to live at home as non-dependents. Reasonable contributions to the household budgets need to be demonstrated to prevent clients finding themselves with a reduced benefit income but still paying full bill payments. I have helped an increased number of clients to apply for Discretionary Housing
Payments and Exceptional Hardship Payments from Maldon District Council. I have made more
applications to charities for grants (e.g. moving expenses when evicted) and given out more vouchers for food banks.
I continue to have a number of very long-standing clients who return regularly as
circumstances change.
I work more closely with other specialists in the Bureau where areas of expertise overlap. The time delays in benefit applications and appeals have a significant effect in enabling negotiations for debt
repayments. For clients with mortgage arrears, the ending of the Mortgage Rescue Scheme in March this year has cut a useful option for clients in smaller properties. Mortgage companies no longer offer interest-only mortgages and are more
reluctant to offer payment holidays. For clients with medical problems, however, the companies that have specialist teams do provide more time and a more supportive approach. The Mortgage Interest Relief provided by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is beneficial to clients who have a very low fixed mortgage interest rate; I negotiated with one company that the difference between the client’s interest rate and the DWP fixed rate could be used to pay off a separate housing loan the client had.
Christine Wakeling
14
You made it clear about how to resolve my problems so
that I do not get into difficulties
in the future.
‘‘ ‘‘
Benefits
Welfare Reform
Some of the changes introduced in the 2013 Welfare Reform have been particularly significant in our area.
Council Tax Benefit has been replaced by a local scheme which gives the local authority more powers on how to administer the benefit. As government funding has been reduced by 10% but pensioners have to be protected, people of working age are seeing a minimum of a 20% reduction in the level of their Council Tax Support.
The Local Housing Allowance, which restricts the maximum amount of housing benefit that can be paid, has remained frozen, while rents for private tenants continue to rise.
Other benefits have received a lower than inflation level of increase and all of these have contributed to further financial pressures on the lower paid.
Appeals
The appeals process for benefits administered by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) changed in October 2013 introducing an additional stage called a Mandatory Reconsideration. Only after this stage has been completed and a decision received can the Bureau directly request an appeal hearing from the tribunal service. The appeals process is handled by a small team within the Bureau, one of whom specializes in those concerning physical health problems and one concerning mental health problems. The aim now is to collect as much evidence as possible as part of the Mandatory Reconsideration request in order to try to get the decision reversed at this early stage.
A consequence of this change is that for disputed Employment and Support Allowance claims, the benefit is only paid once an appeal has been lodged, so now there is a payment gap during the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, forcing ill claimants onto Jobseekers Allowance.
Many of the appeals seen by the Bureau relate to medical decisions made as part of the claiming process for Employment and Support Allowance.
The process for dealing with these is relatively straightforward and consists largely of obtaining supporting medical evidence from doctors and specialists. There is unfortunately considerable resistance from the medical profession, especially local GPs, to providing written evidence and where this is forthcoming there is often a significant cost associated.
Another difficult area where there have been a number of recent appeals relates to co-habitation.
For all means-tested benefits couples are assessed jointly. The benefit agencies seem to have stepped up their surveillance in this area. HM Revenue &
Customs, which administers tax credits, regularly runs crosschecks on tax databases looking at its addresses associated with single claimants. The local authority is also very active in investigating the claims of single applicants.
For a claimant caught up in one of these
investigations the results can be devastating. As the agencies co-operate the client can find that all their benefits are stopped at the same time. In many
cases the client will be a single mother with young children faced with losing her Child Tax Credits, Income Support, Housing Benefit
and Council Tax Support.
Clients are usually interviewed under caution and as well as the loss of benefits are faced with the threat of a criminal prosecution and the need to repay large sums.
The cases are often complex and involve people’s personal relationships. Co-habitation is not well defined in the regulations and there is much case law going back many years.
Personal Independence Payments
The main long-term disability benefit, Disability Living Allowance, is no longer available to new claimants. It has been replaced by Personal Independence Payments. This involves outside agencies as part of the assessment process which has been changed to a more points-based
approach. The time taken for a decision is now approaching one year; meanwhile a client is left without money to pay for the extra expenses incurred by their disability, causing unnecessary hardship.
Phil Watkins
16
The difference this will make will be immense! I will not have to worry so much and will
feel so much better to deal with
life etc.
‘‘ ‘‘
Debt
The majority of our clients have financial difficulties, and to address the need for money advice to be given as part of so many interviews, all generalist advisers have had additional training in this area during the year. This has involved visits from accountants Grant Thornton, the Insolvency Service and Citizens Advice specialists, as well as online refresher training. Although there are several agencies such as Stepchange offering online and telephone help with debts, many clients prefer the support given by face-to-face advice available to them in the Bureau. It has become our aim during the year to move clients away from over-dependency on an individual adviser to providing them with tools, understanding and confidence to manage their own correspondence with creditors where
this is appropriate.
We continue to have a high demand for Debt Relief Orders and to address this are training three additional
intermediaries. During the year 44 Debt Relief Order applications were started in which debts to a value of
£431,614 would be written off.
They helped me to find out what
debts are the most important ones to pay
and how to work out my money.
‘‘ ‘‘
Being a trainee
Last September Robin and I started out as trainee advisers. We met each week for two hours during which time our very patient and dedicated tutor took us through the aims and objectives of Citizens Advice, the eight main enquiry areas and how to use PETRA. We also, individually, came to a weekly session at the Bureau and sat in on interviews as observers. This was by no means all that was needed and we found ourselves spending several hours each week doing our
‘homework’ in order to consolidate the learning of that week’s topic.
This took the form either of working through one of the CAB
Learning Programme booklets or of following an online tutorial from CABLINK or Wiser Adviser. By early February we were ready for the first of the training days held at a local centre, after which we started seeing clients ourselves, initially being observed but soon on our own, with the support of the supervisor. We have recently completed the second training day, held in Cambridge.
The journey has been a challenge with a huge amount of
information, acronyms and procedures to understand and remember.
However, with the steady and encouraging support of our tutor and the other members of the bureau, we have made progress. They have cheerfully answered the same questions over and over again, and enabled us to feel valuable members of the team. In fact the teamwork at Maldon & District CAB is very impressive. I have yet to meet anyone, either volunteer or specialist and who I may have only just met, who has not been prepared to stop what they are doing in order to help.
Ruth Hamborg
18
Trustees
David Pickles (Chair) Martin Say (Treasurer) John Almond
Richard Bright Christine Dove Margaret England Mike Irwin
Anne James Charles Middleton Ken Rose
Jenny Vesey
Independent Examiners
Pocknells LLP, Henry Brake House, 46 Hullbridge Road, South Woodham Ferrers, CM3 5NG
Bankers
HSBC
72 High Street Maldon
CM9 5ET
Charity No.
1141869
Company No.
7582667
Legal and Administrative
Information
Here to help
Contact us at:
In Person
(no appointment necessary):Maldon
St Cedds House, Princes Road, Maldon CM9 5NY Monday; 10am - 4pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday &
Friday; 10am -1pm Burnham-on-Crouch Council Offices, Chapel Road, Burnham-on-Crouch, CM0 8JA Every Thursday, 10.00am - 1.00pm Southminster
The Library, Queenborough Road, Southminster, CM0 7AD
Every Tuesday, 9.30am - 12.00 noon
Telephone:
01621 841195Fax:
01621 841282Email:
[email protected]Website:
citizensadvice.org.uk/maldoncabTwitter:
@MaldonCAB20
Bureau Managers
Mary Edwards and Lucy Bettley Outreach Workers
Fiona Nelmes Derek Hall
Benefits Caseworker Phil Watkins
Finance Officer Barbara Gale Gateway Assessors Janet Allison
Anthea Balmford Michael Lofthouse Jane Schneidau Sandra Taylor Sue Voyce IT Support Cyril Platman
Social Policy Co-ordinator Gilly Lutton
Social Policy Campaigners Rhiannon Ashley
Charlie Dixon Tim Lornie
Administative Volunteers Sabah Ebrahimi
Edwina Child
Volunteers Advisers Diana Adams
Mike Canter
Terry Canty Barry Cox
Anne Cramphorn Ken Harris Richard Holland Jill McGregor David Lenz Sarah Lornie Tania Plucinski Jayne Porter Chris Roberts David Spiceley Gill Stone
Geraldine Stratford Hilary Taylor Jane Toffell Christine Wakeling Gill Woods
April Yates Receptionists Sylvia Beament Pat Charlton Joan Fish Jean Harrod Linda Keyes Jackie Scollen Tessa Watkins Trainees Terri Brewer Janet Carden Robin Dukes Ruth Homborg Justine Southgate
Staff
The High Sherrif of Essex, Mrs. Julia Abel Smith, visits the bureau, staff and volunteers at work and on a self-funded sailing trip on board Thames Barge, Hydrogen.
Maldon & District
Citizens Advice Bureau
Will you support our volunteers
to help over 3,000 local people in distress
each year...
...solve their problems?
It will cost you nothing just go to:
www.giveasyoulive.com/join/maldoncab
Click on ‘Join Now’ and it’s as simple as that. Each time you shop on the internet you make a contribution to us
AT NO COST TO YOU!!!
Design and Print
Cathy Garrett, PD Designs 01621 892021 07946 522308 [email protected]
pd designs
