A recession puts extra pressure on the third sector, explains parliamentary researcher Veronica Oakeshott.
It seems fitting that the Citizens Advice Bureau should be celebrating its 70th birthday in the grip of a recession, just when its services are needed most.
Bureaux in England and Wales are dealing with 9,300 new debt problems and 8,000 new benefit problems every working day, according to figures released earlier this month.
These have always been huge issues, but the difference between this year and last year is stark.
Debt problems shot up 27 per cent and enquiries about welfare benefits leapt by 22 per cent in the three months to the end of June 2009, compared with the same period last year.
So on Thursday when Angela Smith, minister for the third sector, praised the CAB as "a remarkable example of the third sector at its best," I have no doubt it was heartfelt.
She, like every other MP, will have referred hundreds, perhaps thousands of constituents to them.
She will know that without them, in times like these, her office would be overwhelmed with case-work and the old grumble that MPs are just glorified social workers would be more true than ever.
Looking back at a decade that the Citizens Advice Bureau characterises on its website as "debt, debt ... and more debt," one wonders whether its 20,000 volunteers might have done a better job at predicting an economic collapse than the swish bankers of Canary Wharf.
They have been dealing with the impact of irresponsible lending day in, day out, and now the party is over, their clients are coming in thick and fast, looking for help to find work and negotiate Jobseekers Allowance.
And its not just demand for services that's rising - the recession has hit some charities' incomes hard.
Income from companies and investments has fallen.
Impressively, income from individual donations seems to keep on rising.
But the worst may be yet to come.
Statutory funding accounts for a third of income of the voluntary sector – often in the form of service delivery contracts.
A huge proportion of sexual health services for example are delivered this way.
So the real question for many voluntary organisations will be, when the government spending cuts come, and we all know they will, which organisations will lose out?
There are tough times ahead for the CAB and its third sector colleagues. Having a ministerial advocate should be an important asset as they negotiate their way through a changing economy.
Angela Smith's office has already found resources for the third sector, for example the £15.5million targeted support fund.
But this could be small fry if government tries to save money by cutting funding for services delivered by the voluntary sector in the hope that they will top it up from other sources and keep on delivering.
While commentators may have spotted the odd green shoot in the economy, for charities the winter may be yet to come.
Article Comments
When we talk about Citizens Advice, are we talking about the national association, or are we talking about the individual bureaus? Because they are two totally different things.
14th Sep 2009 at 2:47 pm by paul
