The CAB is no longer the helpful organisation it used to be.

[esagestapo]

Recently I tried to contact the CAB only to be given the runaround DWP style. I rang my local CAB and the call was automatically divected to a central call centre, the lady I spoke to for about 10 minutes, took my details etc and gave me the direct number to my local CAB.

I rang the direct number only to be given a different number via a recording, so I rang that number and found myself speaking to the same lady I spoke to earlier at the central call centre.

Looking at my local CAB's website, I see I can contact them by fax which is not much use to me as I do not have a fax machine, I can write to them using Royal Mail? There is a limited drop in service on Monday and Wednesday mornings for those who have difficulties which prevent them accessing the service by telephone.

I now realise it is impossible to contact them by phone, so I may have to get there in person and make use of the limited drop in option to make an appointment.

As the CAB has a website, why are they not contactable by email? It seems to me they do not want to be contacted, unless you go there in person to make an appointment, they are not contactable by any other means.

What is the CAB like in your area?

[ladymoth]

It's always been excellent, but I gather that they have lost a great deal of their funding.

Poor people are no longer entitled to any service which might give them the help they need.

Not that I'm cynical, you understand.

Moffy x

[Maladjusted]

Have exactly the same problems at my CAB. I used the drop-in and waited two hours to be seen. They encouraged me to appeal the ESA decision. They took a lot of very personal information from me. Also wanting signed declarations from my ex husband and son to the effect that they were not supporting me financially. They repeatedly asked for information I had given, and gave over and over again. Then with just a month before the tribunal hearing they decided they cannot help me after all. I have tried repeatedly to phone them to ask why, and to discover just what they have done with all that personal information, which included a letter from my doctor, but other than them sending me back the court papers, so I can 'go-it-alone, I haven't heard anything further from them. Letters and emails go unanswered.

[ronald53]

do you have a children centre near you i do and have got a appiontment there for next week.donot know if this will help

[ellablade]

Im actually on sick leave from the CAB and have to admit the service has gone down the drain with redundancies and hours cut. In fact our staff has been reduced by 50% in the last three years. It will soon be run by one manager and the rest will be volunteers

[esagestapo]

No, you are not cynical Moffy, access to any form of advice or assistance to do with ESA appeals is slowly but surely being removed.

Interesting reply there from Ellablade, a CAB employee confirms we are not imagining this. Hope you get better soon Ella.

Ronald53, mentions a children's centre! I have not heard of this type of organisation being used as an advice centre for benefits. There isn't one where I live anyway.

And Mal has clearly been taken advantage of, with the old recording of details routine, to make it look like someone is doing their job, without offering any help at all. It would be nice to know what the CAB has done with Mals personal info, the cynic in me thinks they were probably used to claim funds of some description.

It's a shame the CAB has been reduced to giving the impression of helping people, when all they are doing now it seems, is recording your details. There was a time when you could rely on the CAB to always help you, but not any more, thanks to IDS and his cronies.

[CarolePer]

I volunteer at CAB, and we do try our best. Honest!

[esagestapo in reply to CarolePer]

I don't doubt for a minute that the volunteers like you try their best, but since funding was cut, it is the specialist legal aid advice and preparing appeals for people, which was run by paid paralegal staff that is no longer available.

[Hidden]

Hi

As a former advice worker are u aware that 95% of advice workers are volunteers they cannot do everything

[esagestapo in reply to Hidden]

I am aware that it is the specialist help side of things that most people need, and as I said above, that was provided by paid paralegals.

[Hidden]

Yes One Specialist worker for a population of 100,000 i.e me Funding got cut lost my job

[esagestapo in reply to Hidden]

There you go then, my point exactly. Getting rid of people like you means the CAB can no longer help where help is needed most.

[Whippetlover]

It looks as if the CAB have lost heart. I now in my area they were amalgamated with a council department so the staff have had forced changes and probably redundancies. I don't think that is any excuse for the poor effort made by the woman who I went to with my ESA form. I've got access to lots of good advice but was having trouble starting it. After condition three I said 'aren't you supposed to ask me how it affects me' and it got worse from there. My form ended being several weeks late but I put all this in a letter to DWP. I'm sure they are super busy at the minute but that does;excuse her sloppiness and failure to help me.

[esagestapo in reply to Whippetlover]

I agree, they seem to have no interest at all in my area, since their legal aid funding was pulled. And with all due respect to volunteers, I know they try their best, but without some legal training, they are not much use to benefit claimants.

But I would expect the CAB, at the very least, to have people who are more than capable of filling in an ESA/50 form, and returning it to the DWP on time.

The CAB in my area have taken over from Trading Standards (TS), that's who you get through to now if you ring TS.