Huge queues are forming outside a Coventry advice centre as desperate families look for help during the recession.
Some are waiting up to two hours for the doors to the city’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau to open.
Staff say they are being swamped with pleas for help from hard-up families.
Many are facing eviction because they can’t pay the rent or are being hounded by debt collectors.
Staff at the charity say things have got worse in the past fortnight and they are struggling to cope with the high demand for advice and help.
One day last week, 45 people were queuing at the door of the Citizens Advice Bureau in Little Park Street, city centre when it opened.
Many had been there for two hours.
CAB bosses say that despite service expansions, staff and volunteers are failing to keep up with soaring demand.
They are warning that if the situation continues, emergency users will no longer get vital access to help from the service.
Charley Gibbons, Coventry CAB chief executive, said: “Tuesday was horrendous.
“I arrived 7.30am for an early morning meeting and there was already a queue at the door of about 12 people.
“I don’t know how long they’d been waiting there before I arrived.
“By 8.30am there were 40. By 9.30am there were 45.”
The centre started feeling the strain two weeks ago when he says changes to the benefits, housing allowance and tax credits system came in.
Mr Gibbons also blames cuts in public sector funding and services moving away from face-to-face contact towards online and telephone-based advice, which he says are not for everyone especially those with language barriers and without access to the internet.
Mr Gibbons added: “The service is really feeling the pinch.
“People are coming to us with a wide range of problems.
“We are talking about families coming to us who are about to be evicted, people who have received letters from bailiffs.
“They’re all extremely stressful situations.
“People come to us in a state of panic.”
He says the service is “starting to buckle”, despite the CAB having moved to the premises three years ago with more space for consultations.
The number of advisors has also increased.
In three years the number of Coventry CAB volunteers rose dramatically from just 15 to more than 100 and paid staff went up from 18 to 40.
Ed Hodson, Coventry CAB policy officer, said: “We’re dealing with issues that change people’s lives.
“We want people to come and get advice but more and more people are coming.
“We have to warn them about the queues in advance and let them decide how long they want to wait depending on how desperate they are for help.”
CAB receptionist Sue Adams said: “People wait in all weathers, come rain or shine.”
Mr Gibbons added: “I have serious concerns that there are only a small number of advice services in the city and between us we all have queues, we all have long waiting lists.
“It will get to the point where people simply can’t get in and that will have a huge impact on the city with more people being evicted and losing their homes.
“We are doing all we can to keep up with the demand and are constantly reviewing our service and working with our partner organisations.”
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 8:08 pm