Citizens Advice congratulates new leader of SDLP

Siobhan Gough-Duffin, Citizens Advice with Margaret Ritchie, Leader of SDLP at the SDLP Party Conference in Newcastle

Citizens Advice attended the recent SDLP Party Conference in Newcastle as part of its commitment to meet with local politicians and Assembly Members from across the political spectrum to highlight the issues of concern facing our clients. 

Delegates were informed about the key issues affecting clients of Citizens Advice during the recession, namely increases in enquiries in relation to debt, bankruptcy, access to social security benefits and employment, particularly on redundancy.  Delegates were also provided with information about the free training on money management which can be provided to practitioners engaging with young people who are not in employment, education or training.  This training is provided by Citizens Advice through the Young People and Money project and is funded by the FSA.

Citizens Advice was pleased to meet with Margaret Ritchie, Minister for Social Development at the event.  The Minister currently provides funding through her Department for a valuable project on benefit uptake which is being carried out by Citizens Advice targeting 25,000 people to help maximise their benefit entitlements. 

Citizens Advice would like to congratulate Margaret Ritchie on becoming the new leader of the SDLP and looks forward to continuing to work with her in the future.