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Jobs under threat at Scarborough advice bureau
SERVICES and jobs are still under threat at Scarborough's Citizens Advice Bureau due to changes in funding.
The Evening News reported how staff were left in shock after hearing that their funding allocation for welfare benefits advice could be slashed from more than 60,000 to just over 23,000 from October.
The moves by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) meant that three jobs are now under threat and hundreds of members of the public may be turned away.
Staff heard how, from October, the LSC is proposing to fund just 140 cases a year instead of 363, which is the number of welfare benefits advice cases Scarbor-ough dealt with in the past year.
But since hearing the news last month, staff have since been informed that the allocation has been upped from 140 to 200, which would still leave a massive shortfall.
Welfare benefits advisor Rachel Boyes said: "They have taken some funding from Harrogate to give to us, but it's still a 45 per cent cut.
"It just shows how little money is available. We're trying to look at alternative funding, but we're not optimistic at all.
"People are really fed up."
Scarborough's MP Robert Goodwill has been arguing the bureau's case with the LSC.
He said: "I suspect it's a similar case up and down the country, but it looks like they're running on empty as per funding.
"I'm glad they've relented a bit, but we'll keep the pressure on to see what can be done."
In an official response to Scarborough Citizens Advice Bureau, an LSC spokesman said he recognised the number of clients seen in Scarborough and the expertise the team had developed.
However he added: "Our resources are not unlimited and whilst we do intend to continue to fund a million acts of assistance across England and Wales as a whole, we must also remain within the limits of our budget."
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Weather for Scarborough
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
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Wind direction: North
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