70 years of Citizens Advice
Melton Borough Citizens Advice Bureau was recently joined by other bureaux around the country in celebrating the charity’s 70th birthday on Friday 4th September.
New figures show that what started out as an emergency service in wartime is needed now more than ever, as people turn to the CAB in record numbers for help with recession-related problems.
From rationing to recession, the CAB has been there for people in times of crisis. People’s problems may have changed over the decades but the need for our service has not.
- Wartime austerity and enemy action saw bureaux helping people trace missing relatives, helping them get back on their feet after being bombed out of their homes and losing everything, arranging evacuation for mothers and children, and sorting out problems with rationing.
- By the 1960s, a social revolution was taking place and new-found affluence began to replace austerity for many. But the consumer boom brought new problems as people realised they could ‘buy now, pay later’, and housing problems and divorce dominated CAB caseloads.
- As a new millennium dawned bureaux were still helping people cope with the fallout from two recessions, mass unemployment, a repossessions crisis and unprecedented access to easy credit. Debt and benefits became the biggest issues brought to bureaux by far.
Now tackling around six million problems of all kinds every year, the volunteer-based national charity involving 27,000 people has been used by almost half the population at some time in their lives.
We have a history to be proud of, and the reason we have survived so long is that we have constantly adapted to meet changing advice needs. We are now focussed firmly on the future with the aim of making sure everyone is able to get the free, independent and expert advice they need when they need it, and in the way that best suits their needs.
