GLENROTHES MSP PRAISES LOCAL CITIZENS’S ADVICE BUREAU

Published date : 12 Jul 2019

Glenrothes MSP, Jenny Gilruth, paid a visit to the Citizen’s Advice and Rights Fife (CARF) in Glenrothes recently, to meet with the senior staff and learn more about the valuable role the organisation plays in income maximisation within the local community.

In 2018, Citizens Advice and Rights Fife became the first agency of its type to be reaccredited by the Scottish Government for the quality of their money and welfare benefits advice. Citizens Advice and Rights Fife has a team of skilled and trained advisers that can conduct a ‘financial health check’ over the phone or in the office. The check-up is free, impartial and thorough, and focuses on maximising income, whether it be signing up to a benefit that is going unclaimed or changing energy supplier.

Since 2014, CARF has helped to restructure over £2.5 million of debt through the Scottish Government’s Debt Arrangement Scheme, helping to keep clients in their homes and reduce the pressures that debt places on them.

Following the visit, the town’s MSP Jenny Gilruth commented:

“I was delighted to meet with the team at the Citizens Advice and Rights Fife today to learn about the important work they do locally.

“I highly commend the hard work and efforts of all of those involved in CARF. It is important for a confidential and impartial service like this to exist to advise Scottish citizens on their rights.

“The Citizen’s Advice and Rights Bureau Fife estimates that the value of volunteer hours annually totals more than £500,000. This sort of altruism is at the heart of what community is all about and I am proud to have such a brilliant facility within my constituency.”

In 2017/18, the bureau gave advice over 56,000 times – helping those clients to financially gain approximately £11.5million. With 59 bureaus across Scotland, CAB is the largest independent advice network in the country.

Chief Executive Norma Philpott added:

“Citizen’s Advice and Rights Fife is a valuable organisation that people from all walks of can contact to get help. Our team of staff and volunteers are committed to providing the best service possible.

“CARF provides people in Fife with free expert information, advice and assistance on a wide range of topics including benefits and debt and we have helped local communities to maximise their incomes, gaining millions of pounds that they otherwise would not have claimed.”

To get your own free financial health check-up, please call: 0800 085 7145 (please note this is a national number), or visit www.cabfife.org.uk.

ENDS

Photo attached: (L-R) Jenny Gilruth MSP, June, Chief Executive Norma Philpott, at Glenrothes Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

COMMUNITY, LOCAL GROUPS, LOCAL GOV