The Bridport & District branch of Citizens Advice reported on another challenging year for residents at its annual general meeting, saying that its services are "needed more than ever".

In the 2022/23 financial year, the branch helped 2,832 clients with 8,831 separate issues. This only represents a very small increase in clients, but a 14 per cent increase in the issues they raised. 

The majority of enquiries related to benefits and tax credits, followed by debt, charitable support available and food banks, Universal Credit and then housing.

The cost of living crisis and increase in inflation has resulted in "another very difficult year for many people", according to David Gibson, Bridport & District CAB chair of the board of trustees. 

In his annual report, he said: "As a consequence, our services have been needed more than ever. Over the past year, some 2,800 clients have been helped with 8,800 issues developed and resolved by our team. 

"Despite the pain of increasing interest rates, inflation has remained 'very sticky', not falling as quickly as economists had hoped. I have no doubt that the demand for our services will unfortunately remain very high in the coming year. 

"I am confident that we will continue to meet this challenge. We have a dedicated body of staff and volunteers who, I am sure, will continue to provide an excellent service to our clients. We are all grateful to them for their dedication, commitment and effort. 

"As I have said before, our volunteer advisors are the key to our success. We will work hard to retain and refresh this vital part of our operation, providing an extensive training programme for new volunteers, and supporting the supervisors who oversee the advice services provided."

Mr Gibson reported that the branch had secured additional project funding over the past year from Dorset Council and others, most notably the Henry Smith Charity offering a three-year grant. This comes on top of the previously agreed three-year grant from Dorset Council to provide information, advice and guidance services up until 2024.

Mr Gibson added: "I would like to thank again all our financial supporters for their contributions and our local councils for their continued efforts and much valued support. I am equally grateful for the continued support of all our friends and especially our volunteers and staff. 

"I would like to thank, on behalf of the trustee board, Tony Rogers and Sue McLaney, who are both stepping down this year, for all their hard work, advice and support over the past seven and six years respectively. And I am delighted to welcome Sue Pemberton and Lester Parrott, who joined the board this year and Paul Williams due to be elected at our AGM. I look forward to working with them. 

"Finally, I want to record our deep gratitude to Steve Godfrey, who sadly died in January this year. He was a dedicated and much valued member of the trustee board who joined in 2014 taking on the role of treasurer for the maximum term of six years and then as a trustee for a further two years. Our wishes go to his family."

Rovarn Wickremasinghe, chief officer of Bridport & District CAB, commented: "The last financial year has been difficult for our clients with the impact of cost of living on higher energy bills and increased housing and food costs. Our staff and volunteers are seeing more local people in crisis and in need of financial assistance. 

"We can see this borne out in the significant trends showing increasing client enquiries in utilities, charitable support, foodbanks and debt. 

"Government support schemes and the Dorset Household Support Fund have provided some welcome relief in addition to the news that benefits would increase by 10.1% from April 2023 in line with the Consumer Price Index. Citizens Advice were active in campaigning on this issue. 

"We were able to support people with a number of additional projects during the year focussing on income maximisation work, money management, energy efficiency and specialist benefits advice. 

"It is very pleasing that our volunteer numbers have increased and our new volunteer co-ordinator, role has proved to be successful in assisting with retention and recruitment. We were also delighted to be able to recruit a new supervisor to provide additional support for our volunteer advisers. 

"I would like to thank all our volunteers and staff for their hard work and commitment over the last year in helping our clients manage what seems to be increasingly more stressful and complex problems."