Stroud & Cotswold DistrictsAnnual Review 2014-15

Our Mission

The Citizens Advice Bureaux in the Stroud and Cotswold Districts are operated by Stroud and District Citizens Advice Bureau Ltd, an

independent local charity that forms part of a national network of Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Our Aims Are To

- provide free, impartial, confidential and independent advice and information to all those that need it

- influence local and national policy

Thanks To The Team That Makes It Happen ...

Ann Adler - David Ashworth - Roger Bagley - Sian Barlow - Jon Barrance - Robert Beale - Val Beatty - Gwen Belcher - June BlackmoreJudith Boniface - Frank Bonner - Alix Boon - Lyn Boon - Richard Bromley - Esther Boughton - Steve Brook - Brendan BrownVeronica Buckingham - Myra Burridge - Christine Bussey - Ian Buswell - Murt Carslake - Janette Chalkley - Anne Chandler

Highlights Of The Year Have Included

Answering around 95% of advice calls so that more people can get advice overthe phone without having to travel to the Bureau.

Expanding our Professionals Line service to support our partner agencies to give the right information to their clients and help them use our online advice resource, AdviceGuide

Recruiting and training 40 new volunteer advisers, receptionists, admin workers, researchers, fundraisers, and IT support.

Launching, in partnership with Stroud District Council, the Stroud District Money Forum which has enabled us to access new funding sources and work more closely to support some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Opening a new Outreach service in Moreton-in-Marsh enabling people in the North Cotswolds to access a face-to-face service

Raising the profile of the re-launched Bureau in Cirencester with a visit from HRH the Princess Royal.

Overview Of The Year

The past year has been one of consolidation after the merger of two district bureaux the year before. With a refreshed Trustee Board, a new senior management team and a volunteer workforce that has now grown to over 120, we have worked hard to make sure that everyone who needs advice is able to access it easily, to continue to improve the quality of our services and to build new partnerships to make the most effective use of ever-diminishing resources.

John Ellis - Janet Fairman - Yvonne Fitzmaurice - Bruce Ford - Beryl Frith - Clair Galbraith - Wendy Gerard - Wendy GilbertJocelyn Gill - David Glass - Iain Grant - John Gray - Paula Gregory - Elizabeth Hall - Rod Hamston - Val Hancock - Anne Hartley

Adrian Herbert - Peter Hilton - Wendy Hogg - Brian Holmes - Gayle Holmes - Sue Holmes - Gary Horne

Advice that makes a differenceThe largest proportion of our work involves helping people maximize their income, whether through helping them to claim the benefits towhich they are entitled or helping them to manage their debts.

Benefits advice work is varied and variable; many clients come with individual benefit queries but this is often a key part of wider queries. Injust one week last year, our specialist case workers gave advice about benefits relating to: unemployment and flexible work; relationshipbreakdown and children; housing benefit and council tax; retirement pension and tax credits as well as to many people wanting generalbenefit advice. They also advised 3 people with mental health problems about health-related benefits; 4 clients about how to challengebenefit decisions through the appeal process; and helped 6 clients to complete Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or EmploymentSupport Allowance (ESA) forms. One client also came with a complaint about the Jobcentre which they were able to help resolve.

Benefits problems often arise when there has been a change in family circumstances - births, deaths and marriages are common as areredundancy, separation and sickness. Sorting out errors in payments can be extremely complex and requires a mixture of investigation andoften patient detective work over many months to identify why the problem arose and how to sort it out. Resolving such benefit problemsoften provides a life-line to people with permanent health problems on limited income.

Peter* suffered a severe injury at work and his claim for Industrial Injuries Benefit had been refused, suddenly stopping after many years.Our Benefits Worker successfully helped him to appeal, helped him to renew his Disability Living Allowance and advised on top-ups to his benefit. After lengthy and detailed work over many months, Peter now is receiving much needed extra income that helps him manage his long-term health problems.

* Names have been changed

Benefits Work Debt and Money Consumer Relationships Housing Law and Rights Discrimination Tax Healthcare Education

Anne Horner - Nicola Huggins - Jackie Huxford - Penny Hyde - Sahaya James - Phil Jennings - Sue Johnston - Sue JonesMaggie Jordan - Carol Kambites - Judy Kelly - Mark Keogan - Paul Kirby - Cathy Kirwin - Nick Lee - David Lewis - Mandy Lafford

Christine Lingard - Paul Lock - Helen Lyons - Julie Mackenzie - Jill Matley - Cressida Mawdesley-Thomas - Arthur McAuley

* Names have been changed

The advisers helped Steven to apply for PIP, to chase the Department and Work and Pensions several times to gethis application assessed, and to help him negotiate repayments with his mortgage company while he wasawaiting a decision. Steven was finally awarded a PIP and has the money he needs to help him remainindependent. He now has a walk in shower, blue badge and his brother has moved in and is giving Steven thesupport he needs. We are campaigning for change so that people like Steven have their disability benefitsapplication assessed within 3 months.

Fred had served his country in Iraq but now had large rent arrears and was on the point of being evicted.

Our Money Advice caseworker was able to secure a grant from a military charity which paid the arrears

in their entirety and enabled him to stay in his house.

John* was paying nearly £2800 per year for his gas and electricity.An adviser helped John identify that he could save £650 a year if he switched suppliers. The high bill promptedthe adviser to look at areas where he may be able to cut energy use. He did not have a well- insulated hot watertank; he had left it like that as the heat from the tank warmed his bathroom. He was advised of more energyefficient ways to heat his hot water and bathroom.

Nina* was off work receiving treatment for breast cancer.Her wages reduced from £250 a week to £88.45 a week Statutory Sick Pay. An Adviser worked out that she couldget help with her Council Tax. The adviser negotiated with her mortgage lender and other priority creditors anaffordable repayment schedule. Nina told us that the advice she received help her to cope better throughout hertreatment and she is happy to be back at work and has resumed to making full monthly payments

Steven had to retire from work because of health problems. He had worked for over 40 years and had never claimed benefits before.

Our Money Advice service,

working closing with both

Cotswold and Stroud

District Councils, has

helped prevent at least one

family from losing their

home each working week

this year. The threat of

homelessness often brings

clients to the Bureau for the

first time and in a number

of cases we have offered

solutions that have had life-

changing consequences.

Advice Issues

Elizabeth Cheyne - Pauline Chidlaw - Miranda Clifton - Zena Clifton - Vera Clouston - Mary Cobbett - Anne Collier - Frances Conway Martin Cook - Robert Cook - Sandra Cooper - Maggie Cornock - Ruth Curtis - Judy Dauncey - Clea Davis - Barry Dawson

Perdita Dawson - Sandra Dent - Mary Dignan - David Drew - Jonathan Duckworth - David Dyer - Brenda Ecclestone - Anne Elliott

The Year In Numbers

During the past year we helped 3,768 people in the Stroud District to resolve 9,033 problems and 2,345 people in the Cotswold District to resolve 6,338 problems.

The most common issues in both Bureaux were benefits issues, closely followed by debt problems.

30% of our clients describe themselves as disabled or living with a long-term health problem.

71% of our clients told us they had experienced at least one negative impact of their problem prior to receiving advice. This included: feeling stressed, depressed or anxious affecting their physical health, financial, housing and employment problems and having negative impact on their relationships with other people. However, after having received advice, 86% had experienced at least one positive impact.

Many of our clients don’t come back to tell us how we helped but, of those who do, we know that our advice raised income of £61,000 for residents of Cotswold district and £277,022 for residents of the Stroud District.

Our work was supported during the year by over 120 volunteers, each giving, on average, 8 hours per week of their time. This voluntary activity is worth at least £730,947 calculated using 2014 average hourly rate from the Office of National Statistics

Beverley McGowan - Callum McLean - Pauline McTear - Rachel Meek - Tracey Melvin - Kate Morgan - Stella Mulligan Frances Neale - David Newton - Angela Norman - Gillian Ogle - Roger Ogle - Sue Oppenheimer - Sheila Orson - Christine Osman

Philip Pankhurst - Corinne Parry - Frances Paterson - Carol Paton - Paul Pearce - Michelle Phillips - Steve Picken - Sally Pickering - Chris Pogson

A Volunteer’s Story

When I returned to live in the UK 18 months ago I knew I was not ready to retire and was not sure what I had to offer but still wanted to continue to be useful. I became a volunteer with Cotswold CAB.

At first I balked at training and the sheer volume of information that an advice worker needs to cover but this training stood me in good stead when I started seeing clients. Not one client comes through the door with a problem I have seen before. I am always learning and have great support from the session supervisors, the fantastic specialist workers we have and from other experienced advisors.

Where there does not seem to be an immediate remedy to a situation, this can be frustrating to clients and CAB advisors alike. But by raising a Social Policy issue we can channel that frustration, sending evidence to CAB Central Office to help them campaign for changes in policies.

I love volunteering as a CAB adviser and believe we are part of an important organisation of civil society - not just helping individuals, but impacting local and national policies and services.

I am proud to be a CAB advice worker. I am confident we provide an exceedingly professional service and I find providing clients with a bit of help or empowering them to do things for themselves is very satisfying. During the advice session, clients usually relax, and express the relief of a problem shared is often a problem solved. However sometimes there isn’t anything you can do and life seems unfair. Such as ending up in the family house with spare bedrooms as children grow up and leave home and finding they are now affected by the Spare Room Subsidy (bedroom tax). The client is willing to move to a one-bedroom property but there just aren’t any available, and so it seems so unfair they should have their housing benefit cut.

Pat lives alone in a village and the nearest prepayment top up point is 1.3 miles away. Pat normally tops up her meter on Tuesdays. Her meter ran out on theSunday evening because it had been exceptionally cold and she was suffering from the flu. She was unable to get out to top up and wasn’t well enough todo anything about it till the Monday afternoon. Pat would like to be able to top up remotely.

Join Pat and consumers everywhere demanding a fairer deal for energy prepayment meter users. For more info: Fair play for prepay campaign

Welfare Reform We are seeing people that are finding it harder to manage their finances because of reformsto the welfare system. Some of the changes mean that some tenants are not getting as much help with theirrent because they are assessed as under-occupying their home. Other disabled clients have told us that theirdisability benefits were being taken into account when their income was assessed and therefore they wereassessed as not needing all the help they felt they needed.

Energy costs Fair Play for Prepay: This year we have actively supported Citizens Advice national campaign thatis calling on suppliers to offer a fairer choice of tariffs, a better price and more innovative ways for customersto top-up their pre-payment meters. Citizens Advice evidence reveals that 16 per cent of prepayment meterusers are cut off over the winter: either because they cannot afford to buy more energy or because they areunable to top-up their meter.

Prepay fact file for the Stroud and Cotswold constituencies • There are 8,726 households – 10% of energy customers - with prepayment meters • Prepayment customers pay on average £205 more per year for dual fuel than direct debit customers

Jan Portch - Tom Potts - Stewart Price - Julie Pullen - Karen Randall - Simon Read - Roy Richards - Karen Riding - Caroline RobertsJack Rose - Colleen Rothwell-Murray - Peter Rowe - Sandi Sorell - Denise Stride - Sue Sullivan - Diana Wain - Geoff WheelerRhiannon Wigzell - Penny Wride - Tracey Young - Jane Rowe - Elizabeth Rowley - Jim Sadlier - Harvey Sagar - Caroline Scott

Influencing Social Policy

As a service, we aim to provide quality advice for everyone and find a way forward, by giving people the advice and support needed. Whentheir voices need to be heard, we come together to campaign on big issues, and use our influence to prevent problems in the first place.

Community fundraising

Volunteer fundraisers have worked tirelessly throughout the year to finance vital specialist debt and benefits advice services that supplement the core services provided by our main funders. Working in partnership with town and parish councils has helped our Stroud fundraising committee to recruit more individual donors whose regular monthly standing order donations are so important to the charity.

Highlights of the year included the ever-popular Bridge Day at Rendcomborganised by the Friends of Cirencester CAB and a wonderful Open Gardens in Frampton. Events like these are a great chance to raise the profile of the charity and have some fun as well as raise funds. We realise that we must maintain and try to increase our wonderful group of regular donors and this year have approached Frampton village in particular. We must thank them for their generous response and thank Mr and Mrs Rollo Clifford for opening their beautiful garden in Frampton for our main Fundraising event in the Stroud District- which raised over £4,000 for our funds.

Ann Selby - Fred Shaftoe - Paul Shevlin - Gwyneth Simpson - Ann Speed - Sandra Staddon - Sylvia Steer - Chris Stockwell - Liz SwanwickMarilyn Timmins-Goode - Shelagh Utley - Caroline Wadsworth - Lesley Wagstaffe - Julia Waygood - Heather Webster

Karen Wheeler - Julian White - Cathie Wildsmith - Jan Wilkes - Jon Wonham - Rubina Wood - Sylvia Woods

We’re very grateful to everyone who has supported us in our fundraising including: the Friends of Cirencester CAB; World Jungle; Stroud Community Choir; WSP solicitors for a partnership Wills and Legacies Campaign and all the local companies and individuals who have provided raffle and tombola prizes and other donations. Community fundraising can be a lot of fun and we’re always looking for more people with new ideas, time and energy. So If you’d like to get involved, please get in touch!

To All Of Our Funders, Supporters And Partners

Big Lottery - Cirencester Women’s Institute - Mr and Mrs Rollo Clifford

Cotswold District Council - Ecotricity - Friends of Cirencester CAB

Gloucestershire County Council - Legal Services Trust SW - The MSE Charity

Nailsworth and Stroud Quakers - Notgrove Trust - Stonehouse Rotary Club

Stroud District Council - Stroud and Cirencester Waitrose - Uley Arts Society - WSP Solicitors

We Would Like To Thank Everyone Who Has Supported Our Charity Throughout The Year

To All Of Our Town & Parish Councils Across The Districts

Avening - Bagendon - Berkeley - Bisley with Lypiatt - Brookethorpe with Whaddon - Cirencester - Duntisbournes - Dursley

Frampton - Hamfallow - Hardwicke Kempsford - Kings Stanley - Longney and Epney - Long Newton - Nailsworth - Preston – Quennington

Rodborough - Siddington - Somerford Keynes - South Cerney - Standish - Stonehouse - Stroud Town - Tetbury-Upton

Whiteshill and Ruscombe - Wotton-under-Edge

And we are especially grateful to those several individuals who have made substantial donations but wish to remain anonymous, you know who you are

This Annual Review Document Was Put Together By Julie Keogan, www.ourotheroffice.co.uk

If you would like to support the vital work of your local Citizens Advice Bureau please complete the form below

Name …………………………………………Address …………………………………………........................................................................Post code……………………..……...

I attach a Standing Order Form and/or a one-off donation of £ …………………….. to support the STROUD / COTSWOLD* Bureau (* delete as appropriate)

Your bank: To:………………………………(Bank) Address:………………………………………………………………………………….……………Post code…………………….………...

Please Pay: Nat West Bank - Account Name Stroud & District CAB, Sort Code 55 61 08, Account Number 10371877

The sum of: £ …………………………………………. Amount in words: …………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………..

Date of first payment: ……………… and thereafter monthly* quarterly* annually* until further notice* or until ……………… (date) (* delete as appropriate)

Your account: Sort code …………………. ……………………………..... Account No: ………………………………………………..

Signature(s) …………………………………………….…… Date: …………………………………………………….……..

If you are a UK taxpayer, we can reclaim 25p (currently) for every pound you give through Gift Aid – please complete the following Gift AidDeclaration Form.

Gift Aid Declaration: If your donation qualifies for Gift Aid, we can claim back tax of 25p (currently) on every pound you give. To qualify for GiftAid, what you pay in UK income tax and/or capital gains tax in each tax year must at least equal the amount you give to charities or communityamateur sports clubs under Gift Aid in that tax year. I qualify / do not qualify (delete as appropriate) for Gift Aid and would like the charity to treatmy current donation and all future donations I make from the date of this declaration until I notify you otherwise as Gift Aid donations. I willinform you if I wish to cancel this declaration, my name/address details change or I no longer qualify for Gift Aid.

Signature:…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Date: ……………………….……………………

Please send the completed form to: The Administrator, Stroud & District CAB Unit 8, Brunel Mall, London Road, Stroud, GL5 2BP

See Our Website For Details Of Locations And Opening TimesStroud and District CAB Ltd, Unit 8, Brunel Mall, London Road, Stroud, GL5 2BP - Charity Number 1096398, Companies House Number 4389411