Citizens Advice helped 4,695 West Oxfordshire residents last year and won them £721,217. The council is raising its grant 22% after a £141,370 shortfall.

Citizens Advice put £721,217 back into the pockets of West Oxfordshire residents last year, on a council grant of £150,000. That is one of the figures behind a decision the district council’s Executive took on Wednesday 9 September, when it agreed to extend the charity’s contract for three more years and to increase what it pays by 22.41 per cent.

The reason for the rise is blunt in the council’s own papers. On current funding, the service was projected to run up a deficit of £141,370 over the next three years, which would have meant cutting staff.

What the Executive agreed

Councillors voted unanimously to:

  • extend the contract with West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2030, using a waiver rather than a fresh tender
  • raise the council’s contribution to £183,608 in 2027/28, an increase of £33,608
  • add 3 per cent in each of the two following years, taking it to £189,116 and then £194,790

The three-year total is £567,514, up 26.11 per cent on the current £450,000. It sits just under the £589,148 cumulative threshold that would have forced a new procurement.

There is a catch for the rest of the district. The council’s £33,608 covers only 80 per cent of the projected first-year shortfall. The report to the Executive says the remaining 20 per cent “will need to be met through Parish & Town Councils and donations”.

More people, fewer problems each

The demand figures do not all move in the same direction, and the council’s announcement did not say so.

2024/25 2025/26
Residents helped 3,408 4,695
Issues raised 8,393 6,846
Residents with more than one issue about 59% about 31%

So the service saw 1,287 more people, but each of them brought fewer problems. The value of what it recovered for them also fell, from £1,031,554 in 2024/25 to £721,217 in 2025/26, according to the quarterly data annexes attached to the report.

Chart showing what West Oxfordshire residents asked Citizens Advice about in 2025/26, by number of new issues

What people are coming in about

Benefits and Universal Credit dominate. These are the new issues recorded across 2025/26:

Issue New issues Clients
Benefits 2,354 1,341
Housing 976 611
Debt 660 474
Charitable support and food banks 485 410
Employment 433 272
Legal 329 244
Relationships and family 314 280
Financial services 188 153
Utilities and communication 187 157

Within housing, private rented property was the single biggest category at 26 per cent of all housing queries in the final quarter. Actual and threatened homelessness together made up about 12 per cent. Advisers recorded an increase in environmental health and neighbour disputes compared with the same quarter a year before.

The money recovered came mostly from benefits. Personal Independence Payment alone accounted for 75 outcomes worth £297,802 across the year. Advisers also had £115,025 of debt written off for 17 people, rescheduled £13,017 of repayments for another 20, and made 143 food bank referrals.

Only one organisation ever bid

The contract was first let after a procurement in 2023/24 under the “light touch” regime. It drew a single bid, from West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice, and the council awarded it for 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

That, plus local government reorganisation, is the council’s stated reason for extending rather than re-tendering. Officers argue an extension keeps the service steady through a period when the council’s own future is uncertain. West Oxfordshire is one of the areas caught by the government’s pause on reorganisation.

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, presented the report. Councillor Andy Graham, the Leader, said the council’s support was a sound investment and that a three-year contract would let the charity plan and keep staff.

The council funds roughly 80 per cent of the service’s total cost. The rest comes from grants and donations. A separate money adviser post, paid for by Oxfordshire County Council, is funded to the end of August 2028; the report says that without it the core service would have to absorb that demand too.

What it means for you

The advice is free, independent and confidential, and you do not need to be referred.

  • Adviceline: 0808 169 6031, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm.
  • Witney: The Old Print House, Marlborough Lane, OX28 6DY. Drop in on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 9.30am to 1pm. Appointments are available on weekdays. There is accessible parking outside and the building is wheelchair accessible.
  • Chipping Norton: The Branch, 16 Market Square, OX7 5NA. Appointments only, on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, at 12.30pm, 1.30pm and 2.30pm, booked through Adviceline.

Home visits are possible. Seven were made in the final quarter of 2025/26, to clients aged 22 to 72 in Witney, Chipping Norton, Bampton and the Kingham and Rollright ward, every one of them living with a long term health condition.

If your problem is a council tax bill rather than a benefit, our guide to Witney council tax bands explains what band you are in and what the charge covers.

The new funding does not start until April 2027. Nothing about the service changes before then.

Sources