Why Citizens Advice?

I blame my former colleague and friend Louise Elder. She left work when she started a family around 1997 but we stayed in touch and some years later she asked for a reference when she applied to become a CAB adviser. I was surprised at the time. Mainly because I didn't really know what CAB was all about except that it was a worthy organisation. But on reflection it was obvious that they would welcome with open arms an intelligent, articulate woman who was motivated to volunteer.

Then in 2009, after I was unbelievably fortunate to get early retirement at the tender age of 57 and saw it as an opportunity to do some things there simply weren't time for before as well as something socially useful after working for a crappy drug company for the last 31 years, there was one organisation that interested me more than all the others. As a bonus I might even gain some colleagues who weren't as ancient as me!

Citizens Advice in the UK dates back to 1939, the first bureau opening just 4 days after the outbreak of war. The numbers of centres peaked at over 1,000 in 1942. The number now stands at around 340.

Contrary to popular belief, each local CAB is an independent entity, a charity which has to raise the funds it needs to operate locally. Each pays a subscription to, and operates to standards set by, the national Citizens Advice organisation which in turn provides training, the IT framework, and other support.

Training is provided for volunteers and this has been considerably streamlined from when I did it in 2009: you now start helping clients after just 6 weeks rather than the 6 months it used to be (in our Nottingham bureau, anyway). You learn about the main enquiry areas (benefits, debt, employment, housing...), the resources, the advice process.

But why bother? Well there is the satisfaction when a client goes home less anxious than when they arrived (which is, in fact, most of the time) and you've helped someone with their problems.

And a lifelong observation that people who don't do anything for anyone else tend to be more miserable than those who do. (Conversely those people who "would do anything for anyone" end to be both vivacious and happy.) Which gives my altruism a selfish side, but that's OK by me - at least somebody else benefits as well.

Beyond the help you give to individual clients there's the combined impact on 'social policy'. In the last year or so Citizens Advice campaigns, based on data collected by local bureaux, have had a positive impact on restrictions on payday lenders, bailiff guidelines, the childcare rules for universal credit, and some of this government's legal aid restrictions.

A lot of clients' problems are a result of bad government policies and bad business practices. (Sometimes it's life-changing events, sometimes bad decisions.) But often it's a result of poor interpretation of guidelines or policies either through ignorance, having to meet quotas (which don't officially exist), or bloody-mindedness.

So, last but not least on my list of reasons to be a CAB adviser, is that, just sometimes, you get to STICK IT TO THE MAN!

YEAH!

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