South Northamptonshire Council (SNC) has agreed a two-year, £120,000 deal with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to continue and grow the general advice service in the district.

Historically the Central and East Northamptonshire CAB (CENCAB) has offered a service in Towcester on Tuesdays from the Library and, Banbury CAB has been providing three sessions a week in Brackley.

SNC continues to look for proactive ways of providing support as welfare reforms are rolled out.  Therefore in preparation for the introduction of Universal Credit (23rd November), SNC has drawn up a specification of services for the CAB to provide.

Starting Monday, 13 July the CAB will be offering an advice service for three days a week from 10am until 3pm at The Forum in Towcester. The Gateway service, which is by appointment, will be offered on Mondays and Thursday and appointments will be offered on a Tuesday for more complex issues.

Les Rolfe, CAB outreach worker, will be conducting the sessions supported by other staff and volunteers.

Mr Rolfe said:

“We are delighted that our partnership with SNC enables CENCAB to increase the extent of our services to residents in the district. 

“We are going to be offering more opportunities for customers to access help – available at SNC’s offices at The Forum, Moat Lane between 10am and 3pm on Mondays and Thursdays on an appointment basis with longer appointment slots for complex problems available to people on Tuesdays. 

“We also recognise that our service needs to be available at times when it is convenient to our customers – so we have made available a special telephone number for south Northamptonshire residents (0300 323 0074) and can help 24/7 via our online submission service available at www.cencab.org.uk.