Citizens’ Advice Bureau hit by cuts

OLDHAM’S Citizens’ Advice Bureau has had its funding slashed by around £150,000 this year.

The 16.5 per cent cut comes as the number of people seeking help with with debts, benefits and homelessness from the charity has doubled nationally.

The figures have been revealed after it was reported that the 394 outlets across England are facing average cuts of 10 per cent. Jonathan Yates, chief officer for the Oldham branch in Peter Street, said: “The cuts that we realised this year were in the region of £150,000.

“Only around £50,000 of that is directly from the local authority. Other cuts came from national government services and some health-related services. It is quite significant.

“Last year we had an overall budget of about £900,000. We are down to about £750,000 at the moment.”

Four redundancies have been made at the Oldham branch in the last 12 months.

But for the first time it has seen a spike in clients in August, when there is usually a drop because of the holidays.

“Like many services we have been squeezed quite a lot. We are seeing increasing demand and obviously the economic situation clearly isn’t improving,” said Mr Yates.

“We are having to change our approach.

“We are launching a new advice service in four libraries across the borough and we are going to expand that over the next two/three months.”