Latest Debt News
CAB gets cash boost
02/03/2006 16:30:00
A Cheshire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has become the first to be awarded extra money by the chancellor to give out more debt advice.
According to local reports, Halton CAB in Widnes and Runcorn is to receive nearly £200,000 for a two-year pilot project.
Under a scheme announced by Gordon Brown in his 2004 budget, CABs across the country can apply to the £120 million Financial Inclusion Fund to help advise people on debt management.
Cheshire Online says that Halton CAB is the first in the country to be awarded such funding and will provide two extra volunteers to help locals control their debt.
It is reported that Halton CAB helped manage £6.6 million of debt by local people between last April and December as the nation's debt level continues to rise.
At the time of the chancellor's announcement, the CAB said it had already seen a rise of 74 per cent in the number of debt problems it had dealt with nationally over seven years.
Councillor Mark Dennett, who sits on Halton CAB's board of trustees, was quoted as saying that the advice would be available to all who were in debt, whether from bad borrowing or a change in circumstances.
The money pays for two more debt welfare rights specialists to be employed at Halton CAB, a bureau that already has its own online referral system for those seeking debt advice.
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