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ADVICE FOR LIVING

In addition to the normal run of enquiries, the Bureau provides a number of additional services for clients:

Debt

The Legal Services Commission and Swale Borough Council traditionally fund our debt caseworkers. However, this year we also received funding from the DTI under the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) for a debt caseworker. The debt caseworkers are able to arrange affordable repayment schedules and complete bankruptcy petitions. A major part of their work is to ensure that clients keep their home.

During the last year they took on 324 new clients. The clients had a total indebtedness of over £6.4 million. Of this some £2.3m was owed on credit cards, another £1.4m in bank loans and overdrafts, £86,000 in Council Tax and £85,000 in rent arrears. Many of the most serious priority debts seem to arise when clients are in and out of work and therefore, on and off benefits or when

IRRESPONSIBLE LENDING

The problem
Darren is 27 and has Cerebral Palsy. His income is just under £200 a week and is made up entirely of incapacity and disability benefits. He was given loans totalling £27,000 by major High Street lenders.

What the CAB did
CAB negotiated with the lenders and some agreed to write off the loans while others agreed to Darren making repayments he could afford.

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Faversham Caseworker

Faversham Town Council contributes significantly to the funding of a Caseworker at Faversham CAB. The Caseworker supports clients dealing with multiple or complex benefits, housing and debt issues. Many of these cases can take a very long time to resolve as the case below shows.

TAX CREDITS - HELP OR HINDRANCE

The Problem
Leanne told the Tax Credits Office in August 2004 that her husband was moving out. Since that date the Tax Credits office has been unable to assess correctly Leanne’s Tax Credits.
She was awarded no Tax Credits for the period September 2004 to June 2005 and was expected to live with her two children on a total income of £88 a week during that time. Last month over a period of two days Leanne received 13 letters from Tax Credits. Six letters concerned 2004/5 and seven 2005/6. Every letter gave a different Tax Credit award.

What CAB did
Leanne came to CAB in September 2005. We tried repeatedly during that year to get the matter sorted out and then used the Tax Credits internal complaints procedure. However, we failed to get a consistent figure for the overpayment or an explanation of how it was calculated. When that failed we prepared a complaint on the client’s behalf to the Adjudicator’s office. This was sent off last Autumn.

The Result
The Adjudicator’s Office is dealing with so many complaints that there was a seven month delay in appointing an Adjudicator. We have just heard from the Adjudicator that he has been able to resolve all the issues and get a correct Tax Credits assessment.

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Freedom Centre

A volunteer debt advisor has visited the Freedom Centre in Sheerness most months. She provided money advice and benefits advice to the users of the Centre.(back to top)

Housing Caseworker

Towards the end of last year we were successful in obtaining a contract from the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to provide housing advice at the LSC’s Specialist Quality Mark Level. Of the 18 housing repossession cases taken to court this year, the Housing Caseworker has ensured that 14 of the clients have been able to remain in their homes and another was able to sell their property and pay off their mortgage rather than being repossessed.

EVICTION AVOIDED

The problem
Steve and Gill had over £4,000 of rent arrears and a suspended possession order (SPO) against them. They breached the SPO and the Housing Association wanted to evict them.

What CAB did
CAB arranged for the client to see one of our debt caseworkers, to have a floating support worker to help them manage their affairs and approached an ex servicemen’s charity for help with the arrears.

The Result
The charity paid off much of the rent arrears, the floating support worker and the debt caseworker ensured the clients can manage on their income. CAB then arranged a case conference with the Housing Association. The Association agreed to let Steve and Gill remain in their home.

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Solicitor

A legal rota staffed by local solicitors, Tassells, is run every other Thursday evening at Faversham CAB. This is a very valuable service for clients as they get 30 minutes of a solicitor’s time for free. Twenty clients were referred to the legal rota in 2006/7 and we would like to record our thanks to Tassells for continuing to provide this service.(back to top)

Welfare Benefits

The Legal Services Commission funds a Welfare Benefits Caseworker to represent clients claiming disability benefits and appealing welfare benefit decisions. The Caseworker had a very successful year. In total he increased clients’ incomes by just over £186,000. Of this, £88,000 was for clients living on Sheppey, £67,000 was for clients in the Sittingbourne area and £31,000 for clients in the Faversham area.

These clients are on very low incomes and frequently have to cope with debilitating and life changing illnesses. The caseworker’s support and success on their behalf makes a real difference to their lives.

A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

The Problem
Debbie became too ill to work last August and so left her job. She asked the Job Centre about claiming benefits. She was told to claim Income Support but her application was refused because she sent in some of the supporting documents late. She came to CAB in January 2007 because she had no money to live on.

What CAB did
The information the Job Centre had given was incorrect. CAB applied for her Incapacity Benefit claim to be backdated to August 2006. An appeal was also lodged about the Income Support claim.

The Result
The client received £1,992 in backdated benefit and a weekly award of £84.49 Incapacity Benefit and Income Support

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60+ Project Worker

In March 2005, we were awarded two years’ funding from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to increase the take-up of benefits among people over the age of 60. The Project Worker has been very successful in publicising the benefits older people may be entitled to. She has provided direct, personal assistance in completing 121 benefit applications resulting in £117,000 additional benefits paid to clients this year.

The outreach sessions she has run at a number of locations around the borough e.g. libraries and sheltered accommodation have been particularly popular. She has also provided assistance by undertaking 127 home visits to clients who are unable to visit her.(back to top)

Social Policy

CABx are very well placed to see how policies are affecting ordinary people. This information is fed back to our national organisation. Evidence from all CABx is collated and used to produce evidence reports and campaign for change. We completed 298 social policy evidence forms, which is above the average for a CAB. By far the largest category of evidence concerned problems with benefits. A major problem was the difficulty of contacting the Canterbury Benefit Processing Office by phone. This was a persistent problem for both clients and CAB staff and meant it was frequently impossible to discover whether a claim was being dealt with and when the claimant was likely to be paid. (back to top)