In Praise of ... Citizens Advice

Reporters have spent much time lately prowling the City and Wall Street, which is fair enough since it is not every day that a full-blown financial crisis comes along. But economic news has also come from places less glitzy and out of the public eye. Yesterday, the Citizens Advice service announced that it had seen a 35% rise in the number of people seeking help with their mortgage payments. Cynics might jibe that investment bankers have their own problem-solving service: they are called central banks, ready in tough times to dispense not advice but liquidity. No such luck for others, especially those unused to negotiating with institutions, or perhaps just unaware of their rights. For many of these people the 400-odd Citizens Advice bureau up and down the country perform an invaluable role, in advising, negotiating and listening. The bureau were first set up as an emergency service during the second world war, to help with ration books, homelessness and missing relatives. The problems may now be very different, but the service is not a million miles away: it is still run by volunteers, still dependent on charity and still driven by local branches rather than a big central office. For much of the postwar period, housing and social security were the two biggest issues faced by bureau. In the last year, debt has overtaken them. As the credit squeeze spreads from the City to the wider economy, the new financial front line might, sadly, become those Citizens Advice offices.