A charity that’s often misunderstood.
Many people make the mistake of thinking Citizens Advice is a public service paid for by the government. In fact we are a group of community charities that depend on grants – usually from local councils – to cover basic costs such as premises and the salaries of small staff teams.
But the grants are discretionary, in other words more like donations than normal public service funding.
And with large cuts to their budgets, we know how hard it is for councils to maintain the level of grants from year to year.
At Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead we take on contracts to raise extra money where we can. This helps, but of course it’s used for the work itself and covers only limited basic costs.
On 2 February You and Yours, the BBC radio consumer programme, broadcast a timely item* about CAB funding. In the programme Martin Lewis, the Money-Saving Expert, underlines the charity status of Citizens Advice and why non-contract, ‘unrestricted’ funds are so important.
Citizens Advice national chief executive, Gillian Guy explains how local CABs work closely with councils to help local people so their grants are good value on both sides.
Gillian also points out that this civic partnership makes us a different kind of charity. We need support from other sources but we can’t easily raise funds like other charities for example by street collections.
* BBC iPlayer start listening at 14.30 minutes.