Agenda item

Report attached.

Members considered a report of Councillor Peter Edwards, the Chair of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, informing the Cabinet of the vital support provided to residents by Citizens Advice East Lancashire and seeking approval to the continued provision of financial and other support to the service.

Councillor Edwards was in attendance and provided the background to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations.  He highlighted the large number of residents who had been advised over the last 12 months, the amount of additional benefit income brought into the Borough and the value of debts written off, as set out at paragraph 3.4 of the report.  Members were also reminded that a similar grant had been provided in 2023/24.

The Chair spoke in support of the good work undertaken by Citizens Advice.  He confirmed that the Cabinet would consider the funding requested, including a possible increase, but this would need to be undertaken as part of the Council’s overall budget process for 2024/25.

Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP enquired about whether £25k was the actual amount requested by Citizens Advice for 2024/25, or if this was simply the Council’s suggested amount.  He commented that the organisation had a good record of adding social value and that, for every £1 spent, it was estimated that £14 would be returned.

Approval of the report was not considered to be a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

At its meeting on 13^th December 2023, the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee had carried out a short review of the service provided by Citizens Advice East Lancashire, who had submitted an annual report to the Committee.

In their report and presentation to the Committee, Members had been informed that Rossendale and Hyndburn Citizens Advice had merged with Burnley and Pendle Citizens Advice in July 2023 to create Citizens Advice East Lancashire.  They had reported the following information:

• People’s health, education, work and social lives had been affected in ways that could never have been imagined before COVID-19 and the current cost of living crisis.  The Citizens Advice Service was a charity and had delivered independent and impartial advice for over 80 years.   The Citizens Advice Service across Hyndburn had many specialist caseworkers who could provide information, signposting and complex casework in welfare benefits, energy costs, money and debt and housing.

• They remained located in the New Era centre on Paradise Street and received a grant from Hyndburn Borough Council of £25,000 per year.  This enabled them to leverage further funding from:

o   The National Lottery for dealing with clients in a crisis;

o   Energy companies for energy related advice to reduce usage and energy debt;

o   Henry Smith Foundation funding for homeless prevention advice; and

o   Money and Pensions Service for debt and money advice.

• Advice had been provided to 1,642 Hyndburn residents in the past 12 months, but over 2,000 Hyndburn residents had been unable to make contact via telephone this year due to unprecedented demand for the service and lack of paid advisors. Volunteers also worked on the advice line, but the cost of recruiting, training and supervising a volunteer was over £1,000 each.  They had a team of 20 volunteers and 46 full time paid advice staff across East Lancashire.  Energy related queries followed by debt and personal independence payments had been the top three enquiry issues since October 2022.  They had experienced the highest ever number of people contacting them for charitable support and food bank assistance, with a 120% increase since early 2022.

In addition to the grant from Hyndburn Borough Council, Rossendale, Burnley and Pendle Councils also provided grants.

The following achievements had been highlighted by Citizens Advice:

• 1,642 Hyndburn residents advised;
• Benefit gains - over £250,000 of additional income brought into Hyndburn via new benefit claims, winning appeals and successfully challenging decisions;
• Debts written off via insolvency options - £302,114;
• Debt repayments rescheduled - £93,105;
• Social Value - For every £1 invested in Citizens Advice, they calculate that they delivered over £14 in public value, through economic and social benefits.  The CAB consider that they saved government and public services money by helping stop problems occurring or escalating, and by reducing pressure on public services like health, housing or out-of-work benefits; and
• Launched a dedicated food and fuel voucher line on the 3^rd October 2022, which received over 200 calls per week from residents wanting help with a food or fuel voucher.

Due to the current economic climate and cost of living crisis, Citizens Advice had reported that demand for their services (and other similar local services) was at never before seen levels, and the Scrutiny Committee had very much been in favour of the Council providing support to the service, where possible.

The Council had provided a grant of £25,000 in 2023/24 to support the services provided by Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn, and had provided a grant for many years previously.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had noted the report, presentation and responses to the questions posed.  It had also agreed to make recommendations to the Cabinet about the inclusion of a minimum grant to Citizens Advice East Lancashire in its Budget proposals for 2024/25 in line with previous years and about a possible increase:

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

Cabinet could choose to accept or reject any recommendation from Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  Should Cabinet reject the first recommendation, it was likely that Citizens Advice East Lancashire would need to significantly scale back the support offered to Hyndburn residents in 2024/25.

Resolved                                 (1)   That Cabinet agrees to include a minimum grant in line with the previous year for Citizens Advice East Lancashire in its 2024/25 budget proposals (Note that actual approval of the grant will be subject to Council approval of the 2024/25 Revenue Budget); and;

(2)   That Cabinet agrees to consider a possible increase in the grant to Citizen’s Advice East Lancashire in its 2024/25 budget proposals due to the current demand on the service from Hyndburn residents.