Citizens Advice staff gets jobs warning

A branch of the Citizens Advice Bureau in the Black Country has issued risk of redundancy notices to two thirds of staff following a year that saw record numbers asking for help, it emerged today.

A 30-day consultation scheme on possible job losses in Wolverhampton has been launched as the service prepares for a 35 per cent cut in government-funded projects from April.

Trustees have issued warnings to 38 of the CAB's 57 employees in the city, but at this stage a maximum of 19 full-time jobs are said to be at risk.

Chief operating officer Jeremy Vanes warned that the bureau is facing "big and regrettable changes".

He said: "As we stand today, all CAB services remain open and running normally and will do so into February.

"None of our existing clients need worry about services being stopped, and we will continue receiving new clients after Christmas until we are certain that the predicted funding reductions are unavoidable.

"The CAB trustees have, throughout 2010, made it clear that the funding picture for 2011 looked challenging on a scale never seen before.

"Several major government schemes that have greatly benefited the city since 2008 were always time-limited.

"There are likely to be fewer opportunities for CAB to run debt cases for clients in future, and the CAB will probably have to concentrate more on assessing the advice needs of clients and encouraging them to pursue their own remedies with our guidance rather than us completely handling their case.

"It seems almost unreal that at a peak of demand for our services, we are obliged to prepare for a drastic cut in capacity, but the CAB will do its very best".

A debt assessment service and a debt counselling service that has been running for five years are also at risk.

In 2009/10 the Wolverhampton CAB's workload increased by 57 per cent on the previous year as 25,900 inquiries were dealt with, up from 16,500.