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more cabx under threat ...
at the end of this article on closure of sure start centres ....
‘... funding for the CAB has been discontinued by the City of London and is expected to be cut back by almost 70% in Nottingham. Further closures are expected over the next few weeks as councils work out where to make savings.’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/28/cuts-250-sure-start-centres-close
early day motion re b’ham cab @ http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=42402&SESSION=905
‘That this House views with the gravest concern the proposed closure by Birmingham City Council of all five advice bureaux across the city; commends the independent service and open door advice which the Birmingham Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has provided since 1939 and which helped 56,000 people last year; believes the decision by Birmingham City Council to cut funding to be ill-conceived and detrimental to the interests of the wider community; and calls on the Government to intervene immediately to ring-fence CAB funding in Birmingham and across the country thereby ensuring the continued provision of a free and independent advice service to many of its most vulnerable citizens.’
No mention of the rest of the advice sector?
Q&A in the lords yesterday -
‘To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in grants to citizens advice bureaux on their ability to provide advice to the public.’
Baroness Wilcox says: ‘It is not taking away funding for advice services’. Oh right. Not taking away funding In the same way as there’s no backlog at TAS I suppose?
It may change nothing, but I’m flipping well going to be marching on 26th March. First time I’ve been on a protest march in many a long year but enough is enough.
westminster hall debate yesterday @ Hansard link
I recommend taking a look at the Hansards debate that Shawn has linked to above.
It is full of praise for CABx and advice agencies generally. There is frequent recognition of a ‘growing demand for services in times of financial difficulty’. MPs of all parties say that they recognise the value of advice services in income generation and tackiling inequalities. Jack Dromey says “If the big society means anything - they proclaim that the CAB and advice agencies are a key part - what do the Government intend to do about the situation (in Brimingham)?”
The minister, in response, says “I am concerned that hasty decisions taken by councils now could lead to the unnecessary loss of important CAB services not only in Birmingham, but in other areas. I trust that, when local authorities work carefully with their citizens advice bureaux to strike up the strategic partnerships I talked about, that will not happen.”
“Hasty decisions” are being made all over the country. There is an urgent need to campaign locally, and nationally, to raise the profile of advice services and force a re-think. If NAWRA can help please contact your local representative (details at http://www.nawra.org.uk).
Interesting piece on Bolton CAB by the Guardian yesterday, highighting the variety of pressures facing the service currently and asking where their clients will go if more advice agencies are forced to close. Also notable for featuring a rightsnet regular…..
Almost two-thirds (65%) of the bureau’s income comes from legal aid – but it’s not just those cuts that Bolton CAB is facing. It has been told to expect a cut in local authority funding (12-15% of its income) and is also set to lose another lifeline – the Treasury’s financial inclusion fund.
Little will remain of a bureau that dates back to 1971, employs 45 paid staff plus voluntary advisers equivalent to another 10 full-time staff and that 18 months ago joined nationwide celebrations of the CAB’s 70th birthday. Richard Wilkinson, the business development manager, thinks the bureau’s legal aid income will fall from £800,000 to £200,000. “Out of those 63 clients that came in last month, perhaps 10 or 15 might qualify for help.”
Bolton CAB is one of the few in the network that covers all five categories of social welfare law – debt, welfare benefits, employment, housing and community care – which makes it so vulnerable to the legal aid cuts. About 90% of people want help on issues within one of those categories, says [chief executive Barry ] Lyon.
Removing chunks of social welfare law from Citizens’ Advice Bureaux bodes ill
The Independent has learnt that CABs, which dealt with 2.1 million customers in 2010, fear their income from councils could fall next year by an average of 12 per cent, leaving a question mark over the survival of some offices.
Citizens Advice Bureaux under threat from cuts
Some pretty depressing comments following this piece if you scroll all the way down, it has to be said.
Yesterday’s response to parliamentary question asking the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of (a) citizens advice bureaux and (b) law centres likely to close in (i) Bolton, (ii) Greater Manchester and (iii) England as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review -
Mr Davey: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has a wider interest in the network of local citizens advice bureaux (CAB), but funding is a matter for local authorities, not BIS. BIS has no locus over the future of law centres, on which the Ministry of Justice lead.
The Government are aware that the local authority in Bolton has no anticipated plans to cut funding to Bolton CAB. As far as the rest of Greater Manchester is concerned a large number of local authorities have yet to finalise their budgets but both Bury and Tameside bureaux are not anticipating any cut in funding. Rochdale and Oldham local authorities are looking at moving to a commissioning process and bureaux in those areas will have the opportunity to bid for funding on that basis.
The Government do not as yet have a full picture of funding of bureaux across England as many local authorities have yet to decide on budgets but BIS is working closely with Citizens Advice, the umbrella body, to assess the full impact.’
here’s link to hansard -
Birmingham Mail reporting that the council has given assurances that they intend to continue funding for bureaux previously thought to be under threat of closure.
Citizens Advice Bureau offices across Birmingham are to stay open after a bitter row between the city council and Bureau managers was finally resolved.
The five offices had been set to close – depriving residents of essential advice as spending cuts mean hundreds of public sector jobs are lost in the city.
And some new developments more widely - Mr Justice Blake has allowed a judicial review by users of the three of the affected organisations – the Birmingham Tribunal Unit, the Chinese Community Centre and St James’s Advice Centre – and ordered the council to continue to pay them a total of £25,000 a month until the cabinet can reconsider the matter and reach a lawful decision based on effective consultation.
In reality, the decision means that the three bodies and the CABx will continue to receive council cash at least until June. The judge was critical of the cabinet’s decision to cut funding from this March, when a commissioning process to approve a new grant regime would not be completed until July, leaving a four-month gap when the 13 groups would receive no money at all from the council.
Decision to axe £1.4m funding for Birmingham voluntary groups ruled unlawful - Birmingham Post
This is the second successful JR that I have heard about recently in relation to funding cuts (the other being in respect of London Councils).