Citizens Advice Annual Conference

Thousands of people in Wales are under severe pressure from rising prices, static wages, insecure jobs and housing, said Bevan Foundation Director, Victoria Winckler, in the keynote address to delegates at Citizens Advice Cymru’s Annual Conference in Llandudno on Wednesday 23rd November.  The consequences of this pressure are problems of debt, problems claiming benefits, housing problems and family stress – problems that Citizen’s Advice Bureaux are all too familiar with as last year thousands of people – around one in five of the Welsh adult population – came to them for help.

Whilst CABx do excellent work helping people to resolve their difficulties, proposed changes to Legal Aid could, suggested Victoria, make it much more difficult for people without large incomes to get justice. The very areas that are being removed from Legal Aid’s remit – housing, benefits, employment, debt and family matters – are those which are likely to result from the pressures on people and households.  Access to justice is, she said, a prerequisite of a decent society – remove it and the wellbeing of everyone in Wales is under threat, not just those directly affected.