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• 2 - 1 Introduction
• 2.2 CAB Results
• 2.3 FFBS Results

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2 - 0 THE MAJOR PROBLEMS FACING CLIENTS

2 - 1 Introduction

This section looks at the major problems facing clients at a broad level. Services were asked what were the main problems clients have been dealing with over the last 12 key issues these were connected with. Responses the table below for both services.
months and the are presented in

Issue	Urban		URH		Rural
	CAB	FFBS	CAB	FFBS	CAB	FFBS
Income	84	100	90	71	77	88
Employment	61	60	90	57	64	68
Housing	23	43	20	64	41	24
Health care	19	23	10	7	32	20
Personal issues/	84	13	70	14	64	16
Family pressures
Personal confidence	6	7	-	14	5
Training for paid work	3	10	-	21	8
Lack of budgeting skills (Budget		53		50		64
services only)
Sample size (N=)	31	30	10	14	22	25

Results expressed as percentage of responses. Respondents able to list up to three main problems.

2.2 CAB Results

Bureaux across all geographic areas saw the main problems their clients had been dealing with in the last twelve months as related to income, personal issues, and employment. These were more strongly identified as problems in the urban and URH areas. Some comments were:

• The degree of hardship has deepened consequent on loss of income due to unemployment, cuts in benefits and user pays philosophy, increased Housing Corporation rents and the costs of health care.
• Economic situation with high unemployment, cuts in benefits etc means more people with financial problems which lead to domestic and other problems.

In rural areas, clients appear to face a wider range of significant problems. For instance, in urban and in URH areas housing and health issues are not specified as major problems to the same extent as in the rural areas, where they are specific as significant problems. For example, 41% respondents noted the housing and 36% the health concerns of rural clients. This appears strongest in the rural areas of the south region.

Rural bureaux also noted a greater complexity of client problems relative to three years ago. The following comment is typical of respondents ' comments:

We would handle the occasional difficult problem less than once a month, now we have serious inquiries every week.

Across all areas, bureaux did not see an absence of personal confidence as a major problem that their clients faced in the last year. This indicates that material factors are more significant than emotional in terms of the problems that CAB clients face. It is also possible that people lacking personal confidence may not have found their way to the CAB services in the first place.

The enquiry statistics for the past two years provide another window into geographic differences in client needs.

These results highlight some significant differences in the last two years in usage of CABx by urban and rural clients. Financial and budgeting enquiries are significantly higher for the rural bureaux. This could, in part, be attributed to rural clinics set up with Inland Revenue Department to assist clients with tax returns, but many bureaux in other areas provide this service also. It suggests significant finance and budgeting needs in rural areas. Health and welfare enquiries are slightly higher in the rural areas and especially in the URH areas. Housing enquiries are greater in the rural areas, possibly reflecting the bureau taking appointments for the mobile Housing Corporation van, but also the lack of other agencies to turn to for problem resolution. Legal enquiries are considerably lower for the rural bureaux. This could reflect less rural bureaux having free legal advice sessions, and/or the greater distances involved in accessing any such services. The lower rate of personal and family problems brought to rural CAEX highlights the barriers for clients in bringing these problems to a community service where they may be known.

Further analysis of the sub-categories within which client enquiries are recorded in these 10 broad categories would be necessary to understand more fully why rural and urban enquiry patterns show these differences.

2.3 FFBS Results

FFBS saw the problems their clients have been facing over the last 12 months as being broadly similar to that of CAB clients. Income is ranked first in all areas (100% U, 88% R, 71% URH) as the issue to which most of the problems are connected. Employment is also significant (60% U, 63% R, 57% URH).
Some general comments include:

• Many clients now have debts to DSW.(Liable parent, overpaid benefit etc), IRD (overpaid family support), Area Health Boards (child sick) and very little left on the benefit to pay these. There is much more unemployment, Housing Corp rents have increased and benefits reduced so in many cases there is very little money available to pay large debts. Most clients now do not have a car or a phone but are still paying debts on them.
• There is no longer employment security or availability of help through DSW or Housing Corporation. (People feel a) loss of control of their own lives, always told what to do. Loss of hope that the situation will improve.
• Hire purchase and store accounts were the common debt, now power rates and "ordinary'¹ living costs are not being met.

Budgeting service results also show that a large number of problems are seen to relate to a lack of budgeting skills. This is not surprising given that this is the presenting problem for budgeting services and the reason for their existence.

In the comments on budgeting services questionnaires however, many noted the absence of budgeting skills as less significant than in earlier years. This is consistent with the importance of income as a major source of problems.

• One thing I have noticed in the past twelve months is that we have been seeing people who have budgeted as well as they could and in fact are doing everything right. They just didn't have enough money to go around and so house, car and health maintenance just didn't get done.
• Lack of budgeting skills is a far less common reason now than three years ago for financial difficulties. These are now often beyond the clients' control because of insufficient income to balance the budget. A large number of clients think there must be something wrong with themselves if they can't meet all of their needs from their income so they approach us to find out what they are doing wrong. Often they are relieved when they find out that they haven't enough income to cover their modest and essential expenses.

Contact for Enquiries

Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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