Phone Lines Open For Longer AT CAB Wandsworth
Opening hours for telephone advice service expand in October
Citizens Advice Wandsworth is expanding the opening hours of its telephone advice service from October 3.
People who want to speak to an advisor will now be able do so between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. Previously the service was only available two days a week.
The changes are possible because a partnership of six west and south west London CAB services has launched the Adviceline service, pooling their resources to make more volunteers available.
They expect to handle calls from 30,000 people a year, answering questions on a wide range of subjects including benefits, debt, housing and other issues.
Adviceline is the Citizens Advice national phone service. It is currently operational in Wales and is being rolled out in England. The west and south west London launch is part of that roll-out.
The Adviceline number for Wandsworth is 0300 330 1169 Call costs are the same as for local calls. |
Phil Jew, Chief Executive at Citizens Advice Wandsworth said:
“Citizens Advice Wandsworth is very pleased to announce a 150 per cent increase in its telephone advice service. We helped over 9000 people by 2015/16, including nearly 1600 who contacted us by phone. We know lots of people would like to contact us by telephone first. This initiative will make it easier to access our service and hopefully encourage people to seek advice about problems like debt before they get out of hand.”
Citizens Advice Wandsworth is partly funded by Wandsworth Council, which contracts it to provide advice services to its residents.
Finance spokesman Cllr Guy Senior said:
“We are proud of our association with our local CAB and are delighted that this new Adviceline service will make it even easier for Wandsworth people to get the advice and support they need, when they need it.”
Citizens Advice Wandsworth is currently recruiting more volunteers. To find out more email volunteering@wandsworthcabx.org.uk or visit www.cawandsworth.org/volunteer
September 30, 2016