The country’s busiest Citizens Advice Bureau faces a “frightening” time as it seeks to fill a funding shortfall of $35,000.

Rotorua branch manager Jane Eynon-Richards says she is determined to keep the CAB’s doors open, despite having to find the money to cover its annual costs of $95,000.

Rotorua Lakes councillors in Wednesday’s community and district development committee meeting heard its Partnership Agreement funding panel had decided to allocate a total of $195,000 to community organisations.

A report for the meeting detailed how the panel followed “a robust decision-making process” and discussed at length what the funding would provide each of the organisations that applied, and the communities they served.

It received more than 36 applications with more than $600,000 requested.

Twenty applications were successful, and the largest amount - $15,000 - would go to the Rotorua Citizens Advice Bureau, an advice-giving service run by one manager and 62 volunteers. It previously received $40,000 a year from the fund.

Its advice ranges from help with housing, tenancy and relationship issues, to income support and assistance with immigration, employment rights and neighbour disputes.

A lawyer and justice of the peace run clinics at the bureau several days a week.

Eynon-Richards said if each of the bureau’s volunteers was paid minimum wage and they collectively worked a total of 13,640 hours a year, it meant $315,766 worth of expertise and assistance was provided to the community.

The $15,000 a year it would receive for the next three years was about 37% of what it received previously. The council was its largest funder.

Combined with the loss of $10,000 from Immigration New Zealand funding as it winds down its Migrant Connect Service, Eynon-Richards said they would need to find other ways of reaching that $35,000 shortfall to keep its services going.

She is the only paid staff member at the branch and said its $95,000 expenses cover her part-time wage, rent and overheads.

“We don’t waste a cent.”

The branch was told last month its application was successful, but it would not get the $40,000 it had previously.

“It’s quite frightening. We’ve been here a long, long time.”

The funding was proposed to be lost completely during last year’s annual plan process as the council looked to cut costs and keep rates down by axing community group funding. It did not make the final plan.

Eynon-Richards said the three-year period and amount of the funding provided the branch security others did not.
Some others only offered three-month terms, and many were up to a few thousand.

Rotorua Trust was one of the larger pools to tap into, and Eynon-Richards said talks would begin soon as the current agreement ended. It currently received $25,000 a year, for the last three.

“They’ve always been very generous.”

While she said there was pressure to find alternative funding, there was time - the branch could last a year without any funding at all.

She was determined to keep the services going.

“We will carry on.”

From July 2023 to June 2024, 11,846 people received help at the branch.

Rotorua Lakes Council's Civic Centre as viewed from Hinemaru St. Photo / Laura Smith.

Rotorua topped the list for the most inquiries of any CAB last year, with volunteers helping 9340 people. This excluded clinics.

It was not alone in losing funding - CAB chief executive Kerry Dalton said funding was “precarious”.

“While CABs are highly valued in their local communities, local councils are under cost pressures and many of our services are facing funding cuts.”

She believed there was an increasing expectation from councils that central government would contribute to funding given the role the service had in supporting people to interact with government agencies and “to help people to access their entitlements, meet their responsibilities and access public services”.

It had worked with government agencies in previous years to develop a funding framework that included local branches.

“While the framework is there, work still needs to happen to implement it and public service cuts have stalled progress on this.

“Political will is needed to give this momentum so that we can ensure CABs are there into the future to provide vital and necessary support in communities.”

Part of the challenge, she said, was that its service related to “all areas of government” and so it fell through the gaps.

“Even though government agencies are relying on the CAB’s local service and refer people to us. That’s why the funding framework is so important - because it reflects the need for all government agencies to play their part in supporting the sustainability of Citizens Advice Bureau.”

The framework looked to fund CABs in an “integrated way” by central government. It involved several government agencies.

She hoped funding would be dedicated through the Budget.

“We are just asking for government agencies to play their part.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last month announced a commitment to take the four wellbeings out of the Local Government Act. They tasked councils with looking after the “social, economic, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of their communities”.

Rotorua Lakes Councillor Don Paterson at a July meeting. Photo / Laura Smith.

Rotorua councillor Don Paterson was on the panel for the funding decision.

He said there were “many worthwhile” causes and it had to make tough decisions.

He said it focused on applications that aligned with the council’s key outcomes and the fund objective.

“In my opinion, the mahi of largely voluntary organisations, like the CAB, contributes to community cohesion.

“They fill the gaps that otherwise would remain empty, as central government agencies and councils, do not have the resources or local connections, to assist with the diverse range of challenges faced by our people, today.”

Paterson said Luxon’s comments to “rein in the fantasies and get back to delivering the basics brilliantly” resonated with him, but he was alarmed at the intent to scrap the wellbeing provisions.

“Not only do they ensure that principles relating to local government decisions take into account the aspect of wellbeing, they also provide our ratepayers with the right to expect that council spending is well signalled and consulted on, where significant.

“Yes, councils, like central government, need to focus “on must-haves, not nice-to-haves.

“However, I would argue that community organisations, who have a proven track record of making a difference where it’s most needed, deserve support.”

Numerous ministers’ offices were contacted for response.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.