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Citizens Advice Wakefield District – Annual Report 2014-2015
AANNNNUUAALL RREEPPOORRTT
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The service aims:
To provide the advice people need for the problems they face
To improve the policies and practices that affect people’s
lives
The Citizens Advice service provides free, independent,
confidential
and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and
responsibilities.
It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges
discrimination.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Citizens Advice - Wakefield District has adopted the recommended
Citizens
Advice Information Assurance Policy to help us manage
information risks. The
full policy is available in the Office Manual.
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN:
617779
Citizens Advice Wakefield District is the operating name of
Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureau – Registered Office:
1st Floor,
27 King Street, Wakefield, WF1 2SR
Registered Charity No: 1058086 – Registered in England and Wales
as a Company
Limited by guarantee number: 3229045
Website: www.wakefielddistrictcab.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
http://www.wakefielddistrictcab.co.uk/mailto:[email protected]
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
CHAIR: Sandra Cheseldine
VICE CHAIR: Sarah Connell
COMPANY SECRETARY/CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Liz Halliday
TRUSTEES: Barry Blakemore Hilary Mitchell
David Sampson Malcolm Stewardson
Douglas Dale* Hilary Warriner
David Francis Michael Wityszyn
Monica Graham Craig Jones (was Womersley)
Clare Maguire
PAID STAFF:
Wendy Anderson Andrew Young
Michelle Cowper Mandy Larder
Anne Coysh Jane Laving
Wendy Dodson Julie Livesey
Julie McCann Sue McQueen*
Jill Penny Solveig Rawlings
Elizabeth Halliday Wayne Sergeant
Bryn Hirst Zoe Smith
Ellen Howard Elaine Tomkins
Pete Hudson Chris Utley
Yim Ip Irene Walker
Diane Knee Vivien Klejnow
Vanessa Oldroyd
Denotes left during year
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
VOLUNTEERS: Alan Pratt*
Alastair McGregor
Alexander Adamson
Amylee Swinger
Ann Razaq
Anthony Chell
Batool Ali*
Carol Stacey
Cecilia Hewitt*
Celia Firmin
Chris Beverley*
Christine Copley
Claire Ferguson*
Colin McBurney
Daniel Greaves
Delma Stimpson
Diane Harper
Eileen Uttley*
Eleanor Theile
Ellen Loughhead
Emmeline Tandor*
Eva Jones*
Faith Whittall
Gillian Roberts*
Hayley Lawton
Heather Crichton-Sharp*
Helen Turford
Ian Hutchinson
Ian Pitchford*
Jade Foxcroft
Jan Cleverly
Jane Holmes
Jane Scott
Jennifer Scott
Joanna Szmuc
John Wood
John Holmes
Jonathan Hughes
Karen Haist
Kathleen Seacome
Katie Todd
Katie Wawro
Kirsty Goldrick
Kudzai Zano-Tigere*
Laura Sharp*
Leda Prest
Lesley Fisher
Leslie Haskayne
Lidia Foster*
Linda Goodhall
Linzie Hampton*
Liz Elliott
Lynn Hobbs*
Margaret Prime
Michael Rogers
Michael Spinoza*
Michael Liddle
Michelle Langham
Musa Ndebele
Nahida Karim
Nicola Jennings
Pamela Shater
Paul Richardson
Ramune Zemaitiene*
Rebecca Pal
Rebecca Gough
Rico A
Riffat Arif
Robert Radecki
Robert Smitten
Rowena Lester*
Saleem Akhter
Sandra Scholes*
Sarah Roberts
Shalla Akram
Sheena A Vigors
Sherrelle Poole*
Simon Williams
Sirkka Goodhind
Steve Borrill
Steven Wise
Victoria Emsley
Zahra Younis
Zoe Smith*
*Denotes left during year
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Chair`s Report
Welcome to the Annual Report of Citizens Advice Wakefield
District. Further on
in this report you will read of our achievements and the
challenges we have
found in the last year. We have seen more clients than before,
brought
additional income into the District by helping people to get the
correct level of
benefits, helped people manage their debts and dealt with a wide
variety of
other issues covering housing, employment, consumer issues etc..
Benefits
work has expanded as the changes to benefits system have been
implemented.
How can we deliver the wide range of advice that we do? It is
only possible
because of support of our dedicated staff and volunteers to whom
I want to say
thank you for your commitment and enthusiasm. We would not be
able to
provide the support that we do to the people of Wakefield
District without our
funders and I would like to thank:-
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
Citizens Advice MAS DAP Fund
NOVA
Public Health Wakefield – GP Surgery Outreach
Normanton Town Council
Featherstone Town Council
South Elmsall Town Council
Upton and North Elmsall Parish Council
Ingeus – Work Programme
NOMS
There is a saying that nothing stays the same and looking over
the last year and
into the next this seems to sum up the environment in which we
are working.
There are the economic constraints in the public sector which
lead to the
difficult funding environment in which we work. The Membership
Agreement
under which we operate is being revised which will drive changes
to the way we
deliver the Service. National initiatives relating to the
delivery of our telephone
and email service are being introduced. Where there are
challenges there is also
opportunities and Wakefield District Citizens Advice will be at
the forefront of
these developments, looking at ways to improve our service
delivery to clients.
Find out more about what we have been doing and the changes
ahead in the
reports which follow.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Chief Executive`s Report
2015 has been an important year so far for the bureaux network.
Citizens
Advice has been consulting on the Performance and Quality
Framework which
will form the basis of the new Membership Agreement to be
published at the
2016 conference. CitA is aiming to achieve a more flexible,
client lead service.
This will involve changes to almost everything about our service
over the coming
months.
A brand refresh – new logo, colours, graphics and dropping of
the word
‘bureau’ after 76 years
The way quality of advice is measured – moving away from 3
yearly audit
towards monthly sampling and more self-assessment
Social policy is now known as Research & Campaigning and
will be less reliant
on Evidence Forms and more about local campaigning
Channel Strategy – moving towards a national telephone and
digital service
to which all bureaux will contribute and a more flexible face to
face service
Advice framework – developing a client journey which aims to
assist clients
with their problems on the day they access the service where
possible. More
quick advice and less time spent on recording information.
2015 also sees a continuation of changes to the public sector.
NHS structures
such as public health and the CCG, the Care Act, further
reductions to local
authority budgets, changes to the welfare system and the justice
system. It can
be very confusing negotiating your way around Community Anchors,
Connecting
Care Hubs, Early Help Hubs and so on. We welcome the strength
that comes
from our partnerships with other voluntary sector organisations,
particularly
through the Assembly - the Voice & Influence of the
Wakefield VCS.
The good news is that we have managed to retain almost all of
our funding from
last year – Wakefield MDC, Money Advice Service, GP Project, the
Work
Programme, increased outreaches, Think Family. A big thank you,
as ever, to the
local authority for continuing to support us. The outreach at
New Hall prison
has now ended due to changes in leadership at New Hall and we
have also seen
a reduction in the Healthwatch contract. Because of this we have
seen only
minor changes to our staff & volunteers structure with no
redundancies. Thank
you as always to our paid staff and volunteer team for
continuing to respond so
positively to change and for sticking with us throughout. You
will see from
Anne’s report that volunteer retention has been particularly
during the year.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Following are some graphs which will give you a snapshot of what
we have
achieved during the year.
We helped 8,576 clients during the year with 26,141 problems.
The top problem
categories by far were debt (10,828) and benefits/tax credits
(6,452). As usual the
majority of our clients came from the most deprived areas of the
district.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Top 6 problem categories were:
Debt 10,828
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Benefits & tax credits 6,452
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Legal 1,971 llllllllllll
Financial services & capability 1,554 llllllllll
Employment 1,356 llllllll
Relationships & family 976 llllll
Top 6 issues within debt were:
Council tax,comm.chg arrears 1,878
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Unsecd personal loan debts 1,445
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Credit,store+chg card debts 1,037
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Fuel debts 579 lllllllllllllllllllll
Telephone and Broadband debts 518 lllllllllllllllllll
Bank+building soc.overdrafts 507 llllllllllllllllll
Top 6 issues within benefits were:
Employment Support Allowance 1,246
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Personal independence payment 913
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Working & Child Tax Credits 712
llllllllllllllllllllllllll
Housing Benefit 699 llllllllllllllllllllllllll
Jobseekers Allowance 437 llllllllllllllll
Disability Living Allowance 359 lllllllllllll
Top 6 issues within employment were:
Pay & Entitlements 415 lllllllllllllll
Dismissal 236 llllllll
Terms & Conditions of Employment 155 lllll
Dispute resolution 144 lllll
Redundancy 76 ll
Self Employment/Business 57 ll
Top 6 issues within housing were:
Private sector rented propty 334 llllllllllll
Environml+neighbour issues 107 lll
Threatened homelessness 99 lll
Housing assoc. property 91 lll
Owner occupier property 56 ll
Local Authority housing 55 ll
clients living in Wakefield local authority area were helped
last year (April 2014 to
March 2015) with 26141 problems by the Citizens Advice
service.
What is happening at Wakefield?
8,576
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Citizens Advice Wakefield District – Annual Report 2014-2015
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Citizens Advice Wakefield District – Annual Report 2014-2015
Finance Report
2014/15 was a year of continuation and stability. Partnership
work was
continued with NOVA and Young Lives to ensure delivery of the
Healthwatch
programme across Wakefield and District. We also continued to
deliver and
subcontract the Work programme once again acting as Lead
partners. Our main
two sources of income continued from WMDC for our Generalist
Advice Service
and CitA for our Money Advice Service. During the year 2014/15
the bureau
incurred a surplus of £65,524 compared to a surplus of £94,453
the previous
year. This surplus includes restricted funds of £3,861 which
will be spent in this
new financial year. The surpluses made on unrestricted funding
were once again
due to close monitoring of financial expenditure and we will
continue to use
them in future years to improve both capital development within
the
organisation and new services delivery.
See below a couple of excerpts from our published accounts:
Total Total
2015 2014
£ £
Total Incoming Resources 732,050 741,622
Total Resources Expended 688,563 647,169
Net (Expenditure)/Income
After Transfers and Net Movements in Funds 43,487 94,453
Balance as at 1 April 2014 547,676 453,223
Balance as at 31 March 2015 591,163 547,676
Analysis of Net Assets of Funds
Restricted Unrestricted Total
Funds Funds 2015
£ £ £
Fund balances at 31 March 2015 are represented by:
Fixed Assets 0 0 0
Current Assets 3,861 616,744 620,605
Current Liabilities (0) (29,442)) (29,442)
3,861 587,302 591,163
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
The Graph Below shows our main sources of income during
2014/15
Income (%) by Source 2014/15
Other income includes Investment income of £3,714, continuation
of the reviewing our
risk assessment on our reserves we have continued with the
decision to split our
investments with £85,000 being placed in Santander for one year,
£85,000 in Lloyds TSB
for one year and £85,000 in CAF for one year, the amount
invested in all these accounts
will be reviewed upon their maturity.
On behalf of all the trustees we would like to thank our funders
for 2014/15, who were:
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
NOVA
Normanton Town Council
Featherstone Town Council
South Elmsall Town Council
Upton and North Elmsall Parish Council
Citizens Advice MAS DAP fund
Wakefield District PCT – GP Surgery outreach
Ingeus - Work Programme
NOMS
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
The graph below shows our main types of expenditure during
2014/15
Expenditure (£) by type 2014/15
We have, as in previous years, maintained expenditure in all
areas of delivery at a
minimum whilst at the same time ensured maximum delivery of
services by investing in
our front line staff, which makes up 79% of our overall
expenditure. We chose to stay
with our auditors from the previous year and once again we would
like to thank Mark
Upex from Hansons Chartered Accountants for his support in the
production of our
annual accounts.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Generalist Advice Service 2014-2015
We had a busy year again seeing three hundred more clients than
the previous
year. The chart below compares the ways of accessing our service
over the last
two years. It is interesting to see that more clients accessed
our service via the
telephone rather than face to face last year. We also introduced
an email
service in October last year which has been very successful.
Last year we dealt with 26,492 issues. The two main issues were
debt 11,334
issues and benefits 6,337 issues. The main benefit issues dealt
with were
disability benefit issues and problems with tax credits.
Case Study
The client had an appointment to check his benefit entitlement.
The calculation
showed that he was being underpaid pension credit by £123.70 per
week. The
client contacted the pension service and was initially told that
he was receiving
the correct amount of pension credit. The adviser wrote a letter
on behalf of the
client to the pension service highlighting the premiums the
client should be
receiving and currently was not.
The client stated that a week later he received a telephone call
from the pension
service and was informed he would be receiving the extra
premiums and that
they would be backdated for two years. The client has now
received a payment
of £11,000 for his backdated premiums. The client will also be
receiving £123.70
extra a week, he was extremely pleased with the outcome.
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
F2FPhone
OutreachEmail
Comparing gateway channels
2013-4
2014-5
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Volunteer report 2014-2015 During the year we recruited 23
volunteers. We also trained 6 volunteers to
respond to email enquiries, 3 volunteers to complete disability
benefit forms
and 9 gateway assessors to give generalist advice. It was a very
good year for
volunteer retention we lost 19 volunteer during the year
compared to 36 the
previous year. The chart below shows the reasons why the
volunteers left.
Projects
Work Programme Sessions are held monthly at the Pontefract and
Wakefield Interserve offices.
The main issues dealt with at the outreach is benefits, however
clients have debt
issues they will have an appointment made at either our
Pontefract outreach or
our Wakefield office.
.
GP project It was another successful year for the project. The
advisers dealt with 659 issues
during the year 69% of which were benefit issues, with nearly
half of the issues
being health related benefits. The advisers also identified
£327,199 extra annual
income for clients. The client survey found that 84% of clients
felt that the
appointment had a positive effect on the overall wellbeing. A
further 99% of
clients found that the advice/information had been helpful.
Research & campaigning Last year we submitted 240 evidence
forms to Citizens Advice, the main issues
were benefits health & community care and debt. We also took
part in the
following national campaigns:-
Fair play for prepay
Make ESA fit for work
Access to justice
Scams awareness month
Pay day loans
Reasons for volunteers leaving 2014-15
paid work
personal
family
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Debt Services 2014-2015
Funding for our debt services came from 3 main sources: The
Money Advice Service F2F
Debt Awareness Project; HMP New Hall Women & YOI and WMDC
Think Family Troubled
Families project. The statistics contained in this report
reflect the total across all debt
projects.
2014/15 statistics highlight £11 million pounds worth of debt
was dealt with for this period, a drop on the previous year (-£2
million), this debt figure represents the total for
the 1839 individual clients assisted. We saw a 9% increase in
debt client numbers on the
previous year. The need for budgeting advice also increased due
to number of clients
who continued to be affected by the welfare reforms; in
particular the spare room
subsidy (‘bedroom tax’) and the effects of Council Tax Support,
which saw more clients
liable to pay council tax than under the old system of the
traditional Council Tax Benefit
. For this period both locally and nationally Citizens Advice
observed Council Tax
arrears as the biggest type of debt enquiry presented. Factors
such as the reduction in
working hours/inability to increase hours or zero hour contracts
via agency work, in
some instances led to individuals/families not knowing from one
week to the next what
their income would be and an increased reliance on food
banks.
53% of all debt recorded can be attributed to the 30-49 year age
range of our
clients; 57% of all debt clients were female; 43% male.
84% of all debt clients were from the ‘white British’ ethnicity
group.
58% of all debt clients do not consider themselves to be
disabled; whilst 36%
consider themselves to be disabled or to suffer with long term
health issues.
20 21
2 14
3 5
4 7
10 8
4 2
0 5 10 15 20 25
WF1WF2WF3WF4WF5WF6WF7WF8WF9
WF10WF11
Other
Clients accessing the debt service by postcode area
(as a percentage)
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
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Healthwatch Advice/Information Line
The top ten issues advice/information was sought about were:
Complaints (Hospital services—non mental health)
NHS Charges (combination across all services)
Quality of diagnosis/care/treatment (Hospital services—non
mental
health)
Complaints (General Medical Practitioner services)
Quality of diagnosis/care/treatment (General Medical
Practitioner
services)
Complaints (Dental services)
Access to service/information (all services)
Complaints (Community Care/non mental health)
Quality of Care (Community Care/mental health)
Eligibility criteria and assessment of needs (Community Care/non
mental
health)
For 2014/15 the health watch advisers have gained permission
from 150 clients
to share their stories with the wider health watch team based at
Nova. This
information can inform , enter and view visits and trends in
particular health and
social care services across the Wakefield District.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Case Study: 68 year old white British woman; lives alone. She
has 2 sons but contact
with them has become limited. Client suffers from Epilepsy and
is taking up to 13
prescribed tablets each day. Client feels that of late she is
becoming more and more
confused and would like some help on a day to day basis. Client
was advised of the LA
duty to assess a person’s need for community care services and
given contact details for
Social Care Direct; client was also advised to make contact with
her own GP for an
assessment if her confusion is a recent development.
Case Study: Client is the main carer for his 89 year old mother;
who was admitted to
hospital. Client felt that when his mother was in hospital she
became frail and confused;
at this stage a hospital social worker visited his mother
(without client being present)
and made the recommendation for respite care. On the day of
discharge client was
passed a document to sign; he was ‘hurried’ along and was not
given opportunity to
read the document; thus he did not know what he was signing.
Some weeks later the
client/mother received a bill for approx. £500 for ‘care
services’ received. Client/his
mother were angry and felt they have been ‘coerced’ into signing
for services they did
not know they were agreeing too. Client contacted healthwatch
for details of how he
could make a formal complaint. Client was advised about how to
make a complaint
firstly using the care provider’s complaints process but if not
happy with that outcome
how to take it forward to the Local Government Ombudsman
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
Case Study: In December 2014 client has a new set of dentures
made by her dentist. In
February 2015 she had to have them adjusted when they became
loose due to the
extraction of 3 teeth. The treatment was done under the NHS at a
cost of £225 for the
original dentures and £50 for the adjustment. The client was not
happy with the
adjustments made and felt that the dentures were not ‘fit for
purpose’ Upon contacting
the dentist they refused to make any further adjustments and
suggested if client wants
a new pair she would need to pay for them. Client was not happy
with this response
and wanted to take the matter further. Client was advised in the
first instance to
arrange to meet the Practice Manager to try and resolve the
matter amicably with her
long standing dentist. If unsuccessful she would be able to
follow the NHS complaints
process.
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Wakefield District Citizens Advice Bureaux – Annual Report
2014-2015
FOR CONFIDENTIAL ADVICE AND APPOINTMENTS
Telephone 0844 499 4138 Monday-Friday, 9.00-5.00pm
INTERNET SERVICES
For DIY problem-solving visit www.adviceguide.org.uk
DROP IN TO OUR OFFICE OR ONE OF OUR OUTREACHES Wakefield
Office
27 King Street, Wakefield WF1 2SR
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9.00 am – 5.00 pm
9.00 am – 8.00 pm Tuesday
First Saturday of every month 9.00 am – 1.00 pm
Pontefract Outreach
The Yorkshire Coalfield Resource Centre, Thornycroft,
Halfpenny Lane. Pontefract, WF8 4AY Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, 10.00-1.00pm
Featherstone Outreach
The Old Town Hall, Wakefield Road, Featherstone WF7 5WW
Tuesday 10.00-1.00pm
Normanton Outreach
Normanton Town Hall, High Street, Normanton WF6 2DZ
Monday 10.00-1.00pm
South Elmsall Outreach
Westfield Resource Centre, Westfield Lane, South Elmsall WF9
2PU
Tuesday 10.00am-1.00pm
Upton & North Elmsall Outreach
The Village Hall, Harewood Lane, Upton, Pontefract, WF9 1JB
Wednesday 10.00am-1.00pm
South Kirkby & Moorthorpe Outreach (from 17 September
2015)
The Conference Room, Moorthorpe Railway Station, Barnsley Road,
South
Kirkby, WF9 3QF
Thursday 10.00am-1.00pm
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/