Kentish Express Ashford & District
Citizens Advice is stretched to ‘limit’
A charity advice centre is facing a crisis as its funding fails to keep pace with the soaring demand for its voluntary services.
The Ashford branch of the Citizens Advice Bureau says it resolves more than 12,000 issues each year, with volunteers giving more than £200,000 worth of time to help people with problems such as debt, family breakdown, unemployment, benefits, and housing.
But district manager Diane Downing says the bureau doesn’t receive any government funding, and has appealed to the borough’s business community to step in.
She said: “The number of people coming both here and Tenterden is rising year on year, and our resources are getting stretched extremely thin.
“We are running on diminishing resources. More and more people want to use our services beyond what we have funding for.
“We are constantly looking to increase our income with grants, projects and gifts, but it is really difficult out there.”
Ms Downing, who has been the manager for the past eight years, said the charity also had the burden of maintaining its Victorian premises at Seabrooke House in Church Road in the town centre.
One way it can earn more grants is with projects, one of which includes supporting cancer patients at MacMillan hospices to make sure they get access to the right benefits and support.
But the increased workload also raises the costs the bureau faces to train its volunteers, while funding from sources such as Ashford Borough Council is not set to rise.
Ms Downing said the volunteers and staff at the bureau helped save the taxpayer money, and said there weren’t other organisations with the expertise to help people with complex needs.
She said: “Anyone can have a problem, but people can face a downward spiral. We find that if someone loses their job, they face problems paying their mortgage or rent, they can get into debt, and it can lead to family or relationship breakdowns or homelessness.
“We would like to appeal to businesses to help us, as we will often be supporting their staff.”
To find out more about the Citizens Advice Bureau in Ashford, visit www.ashfordadvice. org or call 01233 626185.