Staff at Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau earn reprieve...

A service helping 1,500 people a year in Coventry deal with debts will now keep all its staff.



1,500 people a year go to one of the city’s Citizens Advice Bureau’s ten specialist caseworkers, all but one of whom were expecting to be let go in a matter of days after the government decided to end a Financial Inclusion Fund that pays their wages.

However, Whitehall officials have found £27 million of funding that will mean the caseworkers can stay in place.

Unlike some services that just give advice and require the person to find a solution on their own, the caseworker service actually helps people challenge decisions made by banks and can even help them take legal action.

Coventry CAB’s Chief Executive Charley Gibbons said: “We were expecting to let our caseworkers go at the end of March, and we actually stopped seeing cases last week.”

“This decision means we can start seeing them again now, and our most vulnerable clients in the city can still access this service.”

“It’s brilliant news.”

I've never required their services personally but I happen to know they do a lot more than advise people on bad debts. For example I know of a case where an elderly person's pension payments were stopped entirely after a false accusation by the Department for Work and Pensions and the CAB was the only organisation which could advise him on how to get the payments restored. Similar such cases have expanded exponentially in numbers over the last few years as a result of cutbacks by successive governments.

Like you, I've never used them. But, I do know people that act as advisers for them and I do know people that have been damned grateful that they had CAB to turn to. They do a sterling job.