Douglas Alexander MP

Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Renfrewshire Citizen Advice - Personal Debt Advice the biggest issue

Renfrewshire Citizen's Advice

Local MP visits Renfrewshire Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

Debt the Dominant Issue.

August 2011

Personal Debt is the top issue for Renfrewshire CAB, in Paisley.

That’s the finding of local MP Douglas Alexander who paid a recent visit to the local advice service in George Street.

MP Douglas met with CAB Chairman Tom Devine and heard how debt is the number one issue for which people are seeking help and advice.

Figures from the Paisley Office show in just the three month period April to June this year, over 3000 issues were dealt with for over 1000 clients. And currently approximately 54% of all CAB cases are related to clients facing debt worries.

Speaking after the visit Douglas said, “Personal debt is the dominant issue for Renfrewshire CAB. The figures show local people are struggling in the face of rising household bills like gas and electricity.”

“Credit and Store Card debt seems to be a real problem locally – with some people ending up owing thousands of pounds but lacking the means to pay off their bills”

“I’d urge anyone concerned about debt problems to contact the local CAB for advice. And I’d also like to pay tribute to the work of the staff and volunteers at George Street for the vital service they provide in our community”.

Renfrewshire CAB Chairperson Tom Devine said,

“We called this meeting because we were keen to show our MP, Mr Alexander the scale of the demand that we have been facing recently, and how we have been helping those who need our advice.

People in Renfrewshire continue to be battered by the recession and for many of them the CAB is their only source of help.

Since the recession began, our advisers have been working round the clock, trying to deal with the unprecedented numbers of people who come through the door, particularly with debt and other financial problems.

In the year 2009/10 for example, Renfrewshire CAB dealt with 4,487 new cases. That’s a huge number. Significantly, 28% of these were related to debt. Added together, the amount of debt our clients faced totalled £8,156,190 (that’s an average of £6,599 per client). I regret to say that this financial year, debt related cases have almost doubled to 54% of all our work.

The other message we had for Mr Alexander was a positive one, as we were able to show how we are working to help the vulnerable people who come to us. Over the same year we helped re-gain a total of £971,345 for our clients (e.g. through unclaimed benefits, legal compensation etc).

Renfrewshire CAB will help anyone who lives in Renfrewshire and needs advice. Our advice is always free, impartial and confidential.

It is vital that we continue to get the resources we need to do this work and we need the local MPs, MSPs and Councillors to understand this.

Renfrewshire CAB is a vital lifeline to local people and it is clear that our role is becoming more and more important.”

To contact Renfrewshire CAB call 0141 889 2121for information.

Full contact info via website -  http://www.cas.org.uk/find-a-bureau/renfrewshire-citizens-advice-bureau/renfrewshire-citizens-advice-bureau-82

Attached photograph – Douglas Alexander and CAB Chairman,Tom Devine