Help! Where to get free advice .
16 Jan 2012
During the first three months after it was opened, around 1,500 people attended the Islington Citizens Advice Bureau for a free legal consultation, according to Alison Lamb, Chief executive of the Bureau. Since March 2011, a staff of permanent workers and volunteers welcome everyone looking for help on benefits and tax, employment and immigration related issues.
“There has been an increase in the number of people needing help and advice – last year Citizens Advice Bureau helped 2.1 million people across England and Wales to solve 7.1 million problems”, she says.
CAB is an independent organization, although the Islington office is hosted by the council. Based at 222 Upper Street in Islington, there is not a clear profile of its clients. According to its Chief executive, “(they)are very varied: a mix between young and old people with a lot of disabled (people). We improved also a bilingual service to attend immigrants. But there are many people on low wages,who live often with benefits and in social housings.”
Jobless and homeless
So far, the volunteers deal especially with discrimination, housing and employment problems. The last one, in particular, has always been Islington’s bugbear: despite the presence of 12,000 commercial companies, a large number of residents have few or no qualifications, and are outside the jobs market.
According to council figures from 2010, the number of people claiming job seekers allowance made up 5% of the working age population in the borough – that’s above the national average of around 3.5%. “And we deal with so many dismissals, most from low paid jobs”, Lamb says.
Housing is other of CAB’s big issues. Although Islington is by no means the worst affected borough in the Capital the office still has to deal with a steady stream of people on a Tuesday night looking for a place to sleep. A lot of are from Eastern Europe, and the office provides a linking point with other support services support services.
Islington’s needs
Islington CAB is the first new Citizen Bureau opened in London in last twenty years, but it is not the first free legal advice service in the area. Since 1972, the Law Centres Federation, a charity established by 1978 by solicitors and barristers, opened its door to people who live, work and study here. And also the Islington People’s Rights, another charity focused on legal representation for debt and welfare’s issues, has an historical presence in the borough.
Alison Lamb claims that none of their clients in the early days switched from the older service , which just goes to show that even an area just a stones throw from the City , is full of people who need help making ends meet.
