Citizens Advice

I spent yesterday with volunteers at Rugby Citizens Advice Bureau. When I visited with Front Bencher, Chris Grayling I asked Manager David Gooding if I might learn more about the role of the CAB and see the work they do. So I sat in with a number of volunteer advisors and we met clients with a variety of problems including access to children; utility disconnection; relationships with former partners; housing; debt; faulty goods and preparation of a claim. Often the kind of issues that an MP comes across in his surgery and I know that the CAB here works closely with Jeremy Wright. In each case the advisors were able to quickly identify issues and through experience and a very helpful database provide clients with a useful way forward. I hadn’t realised how much training is required before being able to meet with people bringing in problems and I joined some trainees going through some written examples as we worked out together the advice that should be given. I found I was drawing mostly on my experiences as a Councillor, as a Business Owner and as a Dad!