‘We are not a sexy charity’

Phil Parry has been chair of the Bristol Citizens Advice Bureau for the past 11 years and is also a trustee of voluntary organisation VOSCUR and volunteer for the Prince’s Trust – all while holding down his day job as a marketing consultant.

Photograph by Jon Craig.

Phil Parry is a man who likes to be busy. “I started volunteering years ago when I was made redundant,” he says.

“I did some volunteering with Oxfam and then, a bit later when I was working for the Big Issue, I was asked to go on the board of Bristol Foyer as someone with experience of homelessness. Bristol CAB then asked me to join and the rest is history – 11 years later I’m still there.

He has overseen huge changes in the organisation over the past decade, not least the number of people seeking advice.

“We see people who have been in really dire situations often through no fault of their own. Often it is circumstance – relationship break-up or redundancy or something unexpected which changes your whole life.”

There has been a massive increase in demand for the services of CAB in Bristol which offers free, impartial advice. This has been partly as a result of the economic crisis, but the service has also seen lots of issues around housing and the changes to the benefits system.

“We help people negotiate the benefits system so people have access the right benefits or appealing benefits decisions.

“People particularly have problems with employment support allowance. It has been a key challenge for CAD in Bristol as people who are quite seriously ill have been pressured into going back to work in in completely inappropriate circumstances.

“During appeals process they have had lack of access to money and that has led to horrendous cases. One woman, who had her leg amputated, was a carer in an old peoples home when she went for her assessment she was told she could go back to work lifting people up but she could hardly walk.”

“As a trustee you are sometimes a little bit removed as you don’t necessarily see the day to day things as much. But when you see the support that people get from the CAB and the support we gave that women which transformed her life – it’s phenomenal.”

Phil is also rightly proud of the hugely successful link-up between Bristol CAB and cancer charity Macmillan: “If someone gets cancer it changes the whole way their family exists. Their whole money situation changes and they may be out of work for a long time. By enabling them to maximise the benefits they get and are entitled to, they can concentrate on getting better rather than the worry of the financial implications.”

The Bristol CAB has a walk-in advice centre on Broad Street in the Old City as well as an appointments service staffed by an army of volunteer advisers but Phil says they also now get more and more clients through their door.

“We have expanded massively yet there are still queues outside. Bristol CAB is a very diverse operation and it is very unsung. We are not a sexy charity but around a third of people will use us at some point in their life.

“There is a huge amount of advice around – if we can’t answer it we can always find someone who can help.”

www.bristolcab.org.uk