i used to work as a volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau
Back in the day when i was more of a youth than i am now i got a volunteer post with the CAB. these for those of you who dont know are mostly kind and nice folk who give up their time to help folks in need for free (except maybe occaisionally a card at christmas). one day i was working a little old man came in with a bill for something or other. it was red. never a good sign. it had unpleasant things written on it. i talked to this man about how we could help; dealing with his creditors, organising a payment plan, helping him budget etc. he was very relieved. this seemed good. i though well done bert you have made an old man happy and lifted a weight off his mind. i had. once that weight had been lifted he felt able to lift the carrier bag he had with him onto the table and empty out the bag. this contained some more letters, most of them very very red and agry looking.

i was somewhat taken a back by this turn of events. i had been await to scoot off, write up the case sheet, make a cup of tea and feel good about myself. instead i went to get help. and a calculator.

some time later, much later we finished doing our sums. for a man in his 80s living on state pension in a rented house with no assets he had accumulated £140,000 of debt. i passed him on to the debt department.

they got all of the debt written off.

moral of the story go see the CAB. they are nice but overworked.
( bertisfantastic bert is a sleepy bear, Fri 24 Nov 2006, 15:33, Reply)