We provide free, confidential and independent information about almost anything. Our clients' most common problems generally relate to benefits, employment, debt, housing, consumer affairs and family relationships. We operate from our main offices in Wimborne and Ferndown. We also have outreach centres at Verwood Library, at the Verwood and Cranborne GP Surgeries for patients at those surgeries, and at Heatherlands.
Our current news items are summarised below. To move through the other pages of the web-site, click on the section you require in the left hand column.
Click on opening times if you wish to make an appointment to see an adviser, or check availability at our outreach locations. However, you may find that we can answer your question over the telephone. Alternatively, you could search for the information you require in our information on line section, which includes a comprehensive, recently-revised Self-help Debt Kit.
To find out where our main offices are, click on How to find us. We also have a smaller scale map, or a Google map if you are travelling from outside the area.
If you would like to support the East Dorset Citizens Advice Bureau in any way, please click on Friends of EDCAB.
If you wish to complain about any of our services, please visit our complaints page.
EDCAB NEWS
Develop your skills with Citizens Advice
- Do you have some spare time between 9.30am and 5pm?
- Would you like to make a difference to your local community and help other people overcome their problems?
- Do you have basic keyboard and internet skills?
- If so, read on!
East and North Dorset Citizens Advice Bureaux are running training programmes for volunteers, and invite anyone interested to attend an information session about the work. After initial training you could be advising people on how to deal with their problems within two months.
Sessions will be held on Friday 19 March and Tuesday 23 March in Wimborne, and on Thursday 25 March in Gillingham.
For more details contact your local CAB:
- For North Dorset Tel 01747 825286, or email NDCAB.
- For East Dorset Tel 01202 857100 or use our email contact form.
"Training for advice work gives you the satisfaction of helping others, by working with a friendly team, using and developing your life skills, and helping improve how society works", says Bureau Manager Hilary Forrest. "This is your opportunity to find out more."
New and Improved Self-Help Debt Kit
We have recently revised and updated our Self-Help Debt Kit. It is now simpler to follow, while providing a comprehensive set of downloadable templates that will help you to understand your situation and to negotiate with your creditors.
Extended CAB service means even more local people can get help and advice
East Dorset Citizens Advice Bureau in Wimborne and Ferndown has been able to help an additional 744 clients since February last year, due to extra funding from the Government to extend opening hours.
The funding was split between over 320 CABs across England and Wales to help them extend the vital service they provide and ensure even more people benefit from receiving free, independent and impartial advice during a time of recession. The project has been so successful the Government recently announced an additional £5m of funding for the project, to extend it until Autumn 2010.
The Citizens Advice service has seen a large increase in enquiries linked to the downturn, with sharp rises in people seeking advice on debt, redundancy, benefits, mortgage and fuel arrears.
Debt and benefit problems, currently growing at an annual rate of 21% due to the recession, account for over 60% of the CAB workload.
Local CAB Manager Hilary Forrest said: "The extra funding we received from the Government has helped us provide advice services to a lot more clients over the last few months than we would normally have the capacity to see. The period after Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for people, so if you are struggling with debt or other problems now is the time to get help.
"We will continue to provide our extended service for the immediate future and are committed to seeing as many people as we possibly can."
EDCAB client’s experience is used as an example in Government inquiry.
When clients come to the Citizens Advice Bureau the adviser gives information and advice. But that is only one side of the work: if the case shows a need for something to be changed in society, the bureau sends a report to their head office with the details, although making sure that the client is strictly anonymous. Just a statistic you think? Think again!
"Last winter, when it was cold and wet and heating bills were enormous, one of our clients was unable to keep up with the electricity meter. It was taking 25 percent of income" said the bureau manager Hilary Forrest. "This was a single parent on a very low income. There is a social tariff with lower rates operated by electricity companies, but it is only for people on low incomes aged over 60.", Hilary told us. At the time the only thing the bureau could do for the client was to help negotiate with the electricity company. But the bureau was convinced that there should be more help, so they wrote a report to their head office.
Now, 6 months later, they have been informed that the East Dorset CAB report was quoted in the Citizens Advice head office submission to the Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry on fuel poverty. By putting together similar reports from all over the country the Citizens Advice head office realised that most of the people who have difficulty paying for fuel are not the over 60s but aged in their 30s-50s.
CARDS - Citizens Advice Rural Dorset Service
CARDS is a Dorset-wide CAB service funded by the Big Lottery's Advice Plus programme for three years, to provide home-visiting advisers and an extended phone service.
The CARDS Helpline on 08444 77 20 22 can be used from anywhere in Dorset. It is staffed:
- every Monday and Tuesday from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
- every Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:45 am to 10:00 am
- every Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm
Even when the service is closed you can listen to recorded information on employment, debt, welfare benefits, consumer and other subjects.
Calls cost 5p per minute from land lines. Mobile charges vary.
FRIENDS OF EAST DORSET CAB
Our Next Events
Don't miss our Book Sales at the Wimborne CAB Annex
The normal schedule has resumed for 2010. The next sales will be on 19 March. Please note that the April sales will be after Easter, on 9 and 23 April.
Visit our Friends' Activities page here for details of past and future events, and a summary of last year's financial accounts.
Online Giving to CABx
Donate online to your local CAB
Please download our tax-efficient Donation Form and send us your donation. You will receive a personal acknowledgement directly from EDCAB, and you will receive news of our future events.
Alternatively, the Charity Giving CAB web site, run by The Dove Trust, supports Citizens Advice Bureaux nationwide. You can donate to East Dorset CAB, tax efficiently and securely, using their online EDCAB web page.
EDCAB ANNUAL REVIEW, 2008-2009
Our Annual Review for 2008-2009 is available for you to download and read here, along with previous years' reports.
©2009 East Dorset Citizens Advice Bureaux
East Dorset Citizens Advice Bureaux is a Company Limited by guarantee
Registered No. 2618707 England.
Charity Registration No. 1003456
Registered Address: Hanham Road, Wimborne, Dorset. BH21 1AS
Site last updated 6 March 2010. Please send your feedback to the Webmaster