BORDON and Whitehill's Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) will try to increase its revenue by 15 per cent.
CAB chariman John Page announced at last week's AGM that the organisation will try to remain financially viable without future funding from the National Lottery. CAB managed to secure funding from the lottery for another three years after it was initially refused.
Mr Page said: "The initial refusal made us realise that we cannot take future funding for granted.
"Our funders face their own pressures and we on the trustees board have a clear future objective to make our bureau financially balanced in order to counter the risk of losing lottery funding."
Money received by the three East Hampshire CABs was £2,625 this year which was £765 down on 2004 figures.
A CAB funding sub-committee has been set up to find ways to raise finances, such as looking at local businesses for support and setting up money spinning events to boost the coffers.
Mr Page also highlighted the increasing pressures which are put on CAB to keep up to speed with seemingly continual changes to company legislation.
"Much time and preparation has been required to prepare and undergo the quality audit from our central Citizens Advice.
"While this is a requirement for continued membership of this organisation, I must say on behalf of the trustees that much of this activity seems to be irrelevant to a practical review of our service and more concerned with the process," Mr Page remarked.
He added: "There is certainly some solid feedback for improvement for our team, but I am not convinced that the time spent in preparation is worth the result.
"We passed this audit with satisfactory marks - that was never in doubt - but the bureaucratic demands in some areas of our operations do not seem to be designed to improve service to our customers, which is our constant aim."
The Whitehill and Bordon CAB has increased its service rate again with the number of cases covered rising well over 9,000, in spite of increasing costs and administration requirements.
Mr Page heaped praise on CAB's manager Diana Wilson and her staff for their continued hard work in assisting the local community.
He said: "Despite all these extra steps being placed into their working schedule, the feedback from our customers continues to be that they believe the help they receive has assisted them greatly in their hour of need,"said Mr Page.
During the last year, CAB's three debt councillors have dealt with two million pounds worth of multi-debt problems, which does not include the less complex debt problems dealt with by the general advisers.
Mrs Wilson added: "There is absolutely no indication that the level of debt will go down, in actual fact, the opposite is probably true, because of possible increases in interest rates and the continued, sometimes irresponsible, lending by some banks and building societies."
CAB's outreach service has secured £260,000 in unclaimed benefits during the year, and the bureau's employment appeals specialist has successfully claimed more than £18,000 for her clients and nearly £3,000 in disability allowance.
According to a recent survey, 98 per cent of clients were fully satisfied with the quality of service they had received.
Mr Page also thanked all the CAB supporters, including East Hampshire District Council and Whitehill Town Council, along with all the other organisations which have aided its 21 years of existence.