What we do
The High Wycombe Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is an independent charitable organisation that helps people resolve their problems by providing information and advice.
The Citizens Advice Bureau aims |
The principles: |
| To provide the advice people need for the problems they face | Our service is open to anyone without favour |
| To improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives. | Our service is free, confidential, impartial and independent |
| We aim to help people to solve their own problems |
What do we advise on?
We attempt to tackle almost any problem.
Our Information system is split into 14 key areas including ...
- Debt
- Employment
- Health & community care
- Housing
- Immigration
- Legal issues
- Relationships
- Welfare & benefits
- Specialist case workers
- Legal Help Unit – specialises in Debt, Housing and Welfare Benefits
Service delivery
Delivery is by a mix of volunteers and paid staff,currently totalling 58.
History of the service - through the decades
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We started with debt advice (incomes were drastically cut by call-up – families lost their key bread-winner).
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After the war, CABx worked with the Red Cross to help locate relatives.
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The legal Aid and Advice Act resulted in matrimonial and legal problems increasing in the 1950s.
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We became more involved in housing problems after the ‘1957 Rent Act’ was introduced.
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The 1970s brought large scale redundancies.
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Unemployment enquiries doubled in 1980s.
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Consumer related problems increased as a result of the formation of the Office of Fair Trading.
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The 1990s saw huge problems with changes to the benefits system – including the new Child Support scheme. Asylum seekers lost benefit entitlements and the Benefit Integrity Project was set up to detect fraud.
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House repossessions and changing employment patterns has meant that debt continued to be our largest area of advice for the next decade and unfortunately we are unlikely to see much change there for some time to come.