We're here to help through Changing Times

At our AGM today in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast we announced that in the last year our network of CAB offices across Northern Ireland helped over 92,000 people with over 321,000 issues including social security benefits, tax credits, money advice and debt, employment, housing, health, consumer and more.

We continue to experience pressure of demand for our services given the impact of the recession.  Benefit queries continue to be the single largest area of work accounting for over 56% of total issues dealt with by advisers and demonstrates the complex nature of the work we do.  We have also seen an increase of 7% in our money advice work.

Derek Alcorn, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice said "Our message to Government is that we are here to help"

"The need for the services offered by CAB has never been greater.  The forthcoming spending review which will undoubtedly contract public services together with annoucements about welfare reform will mean that more and more people will need a trusted third party like CAB."

"CAB provides an essential interface between the public and public services.  With 32 main offices throughout Northern Ireland and a modern IT infrastructure we are in a unique position to help people through these changing times."

It has been another successful year for Citizens Advice.  The organisation has recently achieved accreditation against the data security management standard ISO 27001.  This is a major achievement for any organisation and Citizens Advice is one of only a small number of organisations across public, private and third sectors in Northern Ireland to have attained this recognition.  In addition the charity has also implemented a new Northern Ireland wide secure private network as part of its commitment to update, modernise and develop its ICT capabilities.

Citizens Advice continued to work on a number of key partnerships during the year which showed significant achievements.  The organisation completed the 2009/10 Benefit Uptake programme in partnership with the Social Security Agency which helped vulnerable people identify and claim £6.1 million  in social security benefits.  The impact of this money on the local economy in a recession cannot be understated.  In addition, over the same period, the Dealing with Debt service funded by DETI has helped over 2,500 clients with over £33 million of debt.