Working together to give benefit advice to the people of Northampton

A new one-year initiative has been designed to help people get the benefit and tax credits they are entitled to. It involves making new CAB advice sessions available, which are being held at the borough council's One Stop Shop. A poster and leaflet campaign are also part of the campaign as well as a telephone line where people can request an information pack. People in Northampton can call the Citizens Advice Bureau's Benefit Take Up information line twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, on 0844 855 2300, in which they will also receive details of how to make an appointment. A series of events and presentations will also be held across Northampton over the coming year.

Martin Lord, Chief Executive of the bureau said: "We are delighted with the support offered by the council in this endeavour. Although we are independent from the council, so many of our objectives are the same. The most important of these in recent months has been to ensure that people from the town have the best information and help available in order to respond to the impact of the recession."

"When we sat down and looked at our statistics, we realised that for many people the loss of overtime, or the loss of the second wage earner in the household was having an impact and this appears to have got worse as the recession has dragged on.

"Obviously redundancy represents a fairly major change and can be catastrophic in many cases, but more marginal changes can really have an impact over time. This was apparent to us from dealing with people with mortgage or rent arrears that had slowly built up over time - in many cases accessing the benefits and tax credits that would have been available would have made a real difference"

This is not the first time advice agencies in Northampton have worked with the borough council, they recently helped the authority to be amongst the first in the country to launch the government's Mortgage Rescue Scheme last year.

Cllr David Perkins, cabinet member for finance, added: "We are committed to doing everything we can to help the people of Northampton through the tough times and this scheme is another opportunity for them to access sound advice about what they are entitled to.

"Working in partnership with the CAB has now allowed new advice sessions to be available in the One Stop Shop. Importantly, those who may not be able to come to an appointment the Guildhall can call the new telephone line first, at a convenient time, and request a pack full of information about benefits and tax credits."