Two county MPs have secured a major funding win to help protect services offered by the South Worcestershire Citizens Advice Bureau. Sir Peter Luff MP and Harriett Baldwin MP were both lobbied by the CAB after they were informed of proposed cuts in funding. The Money Advice Service, which offers people advice on financial products and services as well as offering debt advice, had proposed that the CAB’s fund to offer this advice would be cut in half. The MAS, together with the national CAB office in London, had concluded that there was less demand for this service in the county and they agreed to divert the funds to other areas. However, South Worcestershire CAB chief executive Les Kinmond wrote to both MPs alerting them to the proposal and the pair wrote to the Treasury asking the department to investigate the matter. This week, the MAS has written to both MPs confirming that the changes have been reversed and the local CAB budgets to offer debt advice locally will be untouched. Harriett commented: “I am grateful to Les for raising this issue and pleased that we were able to help the national bodies to re-visit the decision and see sense. “London-based people often see rural areas with rose-tinted spectacles and assume that we don’t have people with serious problems like money worries or serious debt. “The CAB performs a crucial service helping people to overcome these issues and both Sir Peter and I were quick to act to help lobby for a change of mind. “The MAS was quick to see that this was an unfortunate oversight and reversed the decision in a matter of days.” Sir Peter added: “The CAB provides vital advice to people in severe difficulties and I am delighted this service has been safeguarded.” Les Kinmond commented: “We very much appreciate the strong support we receive from our MPs and the speed with which they acted on our behalf in this instance. “This funding is essential to the amount of help we can provide for people with money problems, since the demand is such that we cannot meet it just with our volunteer advisers without additional professional support.”