SPECIAL FEATURE
When it was signed in 2012, a £225,000 contract awarded by Scottish Borders Council to a regional consortium of Citizen's Advice Bureaux (CABs) for the provision of money, welfare and advisory services across the region was hailed as the key to protecting the needs of the most vulnerable.
But while the workloads of the three local bureaux have been burdened by the UK Government's reviled Universal Credit system of welfare benefits, increasing levels of poverty and a spike in personal debt cases, the dedicated teams of trained volunteers and paid staff who deliver the service have had to cope with a 7% cut in core funding from the council.
The recently published annual reports of the CABs covering Roxburgh & Berwickshire, Central Borders and Peebles and District show the level of involvement each bureau has with the communities which rely on them. And the difficult financial settlement imposed by SBC - the current annual sum given to the consortium of charities is just £209,000 - features in the latest document to be published on the Companies House website.
In the annual report and accounts for 2019/20 Central Borders CAB chair Lucy O'Leary writes: "Our core funding from Scottish Borders Council continued to be provided on the basis of an extension to an outdated contract,
"Together with our sister bureaux in Peebles and Roxburgh & Berwickshire we have been pressing the council as a matter of urgency to develop a new contractual relationship which would deliver sustainable core funding to meet the growing demand for our services. However as yet progress towards this has been slow.
"Without a solid core in place we cannot attract the additional funding we need to run specific projects. We remain hopeful that we can at least agree new terms with SBC in the coming year. We continue to see the demand for our services growing and the needs of our clients becoming more complex".
The annual sums from council to the consortium stood at £228,150 in 2017/18, then fell by £9,000 to £219,150 during the following financial year. The £209,250 grant for 2019/20 has continued unchanged into 2020/21. The current arrangements are due to run out in March 2021.
In their report for the 2019/20 financial year Central Borders CAB indicate their opening hours had been cut from 27 to 24 hours per week. But now, as a result of Covid-19, all three bureaux are working remotely and are not meeting clients face to face.
In Central Borders the Galashiels-based CAB helped 1,830 clients and dealt with 6,893 issues. The top five categories were social security 2,830 issues; debt 1,004; employment 395; housing 322; and referral to food banks 239. Clients received a reported financial gain of £1,613,296 as a result of advice given by the bureau, 75% of which was connected to social security entitlements."
The annual report also says: "This year we submitted 239 social policy reports to Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) on a variety of issues. Main ones continue to be around Universal Credit payments, disability applications and appeal procedures, lack of awareness/support for clients with mental health issues and growing issues around employment processes".
An equivalent report from Roxburgh & Berwickshire CAB shows their staff and volunteers had 7,091 contacts with clients (up from 6,964 the previous year) with a total of 17,100 issues (14,620). The bureau achieved financial gains for clients totalling £1,177,588 and dealt with 66 new debt cases with total debt involved £1,004,597.
Meanwhile Peebles & District CAB reported 2,139 client contacts (1,868) and handled 5,573 issues (5,165). Financial gains totalling £321,031 (£264,838) were achieved.
The bureau experienced a more than 100% increase in debt cases over the space of two financial years - up from 65 in 2018/19 to 134 last year. The total debt involved ran to £620,271 (£258,152).
According to one CAB activist in the Borders: "I cannot imagine the value of any contract agreed between SBC and a private company reducing in monetary value over the space of eight years. It is a tribute to all three bureau teams that they have achieved and are continuing to achieve so much for the most vulnerable members of society despite the outdated core funding arrangements".
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