Citizens Advice Woking (CAW) is having to reduce its service as a result of the cuts in Woking Borough Council funding.

As of Monday, April 29, the hours for face-to-face drop-ins at CAW’s Woking town centre office at Provincial House, 26 Commercial Way will be:

Tuesday 10am to 1pm; Wednesday 10am to 1pm; Thursday 10am to 1pm.

A queue system will operate on the basis of first come first served.

Face-to-face appointments will be available by arrangement, following an initial discussion with one of the advisers. These can be arranged Monday to Friday, between the hours of 10am to 4pm. Typically, appointments will start at 10.30am and 2pm.

Telephone advice via Adviceline – 0800 144 8848 – remains the best way of getting in touch with CAW. The Adviceline hours are Monday to Friday 10am to 3.30pm.

CAW says it will continue to advise in depth in its core advice areas of welfare benefits, debt, housing and immigration. It will also continue to advise in depth on employment, but only where staffing permits. On family and relationship issues, where the client is a victim of domestic abuse, as much help as possible will be offered.

With regard to consumer, family, law and courts (apart from the Guildford County Court help desk that assists people at risk of losing their homes), and health advice areas, CAW will only be able to provide initial information, after which clients will be signposted to other organisations where possible.

“We are sorry that we’re having to reduce our service, but we really had no option due to the cut in our funding,” said CAW chair Laurence Oates.

“We still expect to help a significant number of people in the Woking community, those who are particularly in need, and we hope that we will be able to build our service back up in the future.

“We are extremely grateful to all those who have generously donated to our crowdfunding campaign. It’s great that the first £5,000 milestone has been reached and it’s still very early days. The campaign will be continuing throughout 2024 and can be accessed at https://citizensadvicewoking.enthuse.com/profile

“People’s donations have already been valuable in helping us continue to fund our vital specialist caseworker support in the areas of debt, housing, and welfare benefits.”