More than half million pounds recovered by Peebles Citizens Advice Bureau

The Peebles CAB team are in the town's Chambers Institute building.

Gill Westwood, manager of Peebles & District CAB, revealed the financial recovery figure at a meeting on Tuesday, November 1, of Tweeddale Area Partnership.

The cash was recovered by advisers working with clients to help them lower their debts and claim the benefits and financial support they were entitled to.

It was also emerged that advice workers based at Peebles Chambers Institution were also experiencing an increase in calls on a “day on day” basis as the result of a number of factors, including the cost of living crisis.

Gill Westwood, manager of Peebles & District CAB.

A total of £596,487 was returned to the local community in the financial year 2021/22, members were informed.

And those savings continue with another £48,508 recovered in the last month alone.

Gill thanked her staff for their efforts and said she was “incredibly proud” of what they had achieved.

She said: “The CAB is always busy but the number of calls we are receiving now is increasing, I’d say day on day.

“I think it’s fair to say that many of our clients have experienced some pretty serious hardships during the pandemic and in the aftermath of the virus and now with the current cost of living crisis and food and fuel costs rising it’s left many people wondering how they will cope.

“The more vulnerable in our communities are really struggling, that will come as no surprise to anybody, and debt and welfare benefits continue to be the major topics we advise on.

“Over the past fiscal year, from the first of April last year to the 31st of March this year, our advisers dealt with 1,084 clients and gave 3,387 pieces of advice and I would ask you to bear in mind we are a small part-time bureau, so we are up against it a lot of the time.

“I would say that as a result of contacting the CAB over the last fiscal year our clients are collectively just over half a million pounds better off. It’s actually £596,487. That’s money going back into our community. So the benefits of having spoken to the CAB is good for the economy of Tweeddale.

“As a snapshot our advisers have helped 120 clients in the last month, giving out 240 pieces of advice and the financial gain to our clients is £48,508 – as a result of talking to our advisers and I’m incredibly proud that our advisers can achieve that but it’s kind of tragic that was necessary in the first place.”