This is a long one guys!
The day was split into two parts. Part one was a meeting with the president of the Union of Citizens Advice Bureau in Poland and a member of the trustee board. Part two was a meeting with the very first CAB in Poland, Warsaw CAB.
The offices of the Union of CABx in Poland is held within a small flat on the 5th floor of an old gated building. The lift can only be described as…amazing! You have to open the door to the outer lift, get inside and close the double doors, press a button and you’re off! Automatic doors they are not!
When I first stepped into the office, it automatically felt like home. I was instantly relaxed. Now this is not a bureau as its structure is very much like Citizens Advice in the UK. This is where Laurent works his magic on the stats to try and impress the local government. There were 3 small offices, a kitchen and bathroom…with a bath!! Laurents office was the nicest as he had the sun rising during the morning.
Part one:
The meeting
In attendance was the chair person of the Union for Citizens advice bureau (UCAB) Ija Ostrowska and a trustee board member, Barbara Przybyiska. Its was an honor to meet Ija, as she was heavily involved in the conception of CAB in Poland. Poland was reeling (not the strongest word i could have used perhaps) from the aftermath of the communist regime and her passion and committment to social justice was astounding. The late Jan Zaborowski stated ‘Citizen Advice movement in Poland is a child of its times’ he called upon the citizens of Poland to ‘help shape the social and political structure’ to me, this is social policy at its best!
I am very impressed with how far Poland have come in such a short space of time. (10 years) Having 36 CAB across Poland with 62 outreach’s, where 19 of those are in prisons (they beat Birmingham there!) The provide advice and information on a whole host of topics.
Some statistics for you:
2009/10
17% – Public administration is their top earner (this is every relationship between the client and the local/central government for example: applying for a passport or requesting planning permission) However, Bureau do tend to put cases in this category when they are unsure.
15.5% – Property landlord issues and assets
14.9% – Housing During the communist regime you could wait 10+ years for accommodation due to the bureaucracy that surrounded the process. Although, it could be quicker if you knew the right people.
14.1% Family
9.6% Criminal (quite high due to the 19 outreaches in prisons)
9.35% Debt in the first 3 month of 2010/2011 this has increased to 11%
7% Benefits Disability benefits, social welfare and retirement. In some cases the disability benefit which is a very small amount could be the only source of income a family has. Furthermore, unemployment benefit is approx 100.00 pounds a month where UK is over 250.00 pounds per month. Polish unemployment benefit is only paid for 6 months.
6.35% employment/unemployment
4.8% financial disputes (consumer issues)
1.65% Health
To give you some idea of the level of clients used o make up these figures. Warsaw CAB (the largest CAB in Poland with 8 paid members of staff and 10 Volunteers) saw 7436 clients in 2009/10. For all bureaus in the same period, in total 37327 (36 bureaux) that’s up by 25% on the year before.
Funding
Ija, felt that, although they have achieved so much they still had a very long road to travel. She talked about the amount of administration that goes in to European Social Fund money being 25% of the funding ( i agreed with her that we have the same issue with some of our funders) We went on to talk about the overall problems with funding. Like the UK they have a constant battle for continuation funding. Lucky Warsaw CAB get core funding from there local authority, However, thats not the case with the other CABx, as true with UK CABX
Cost of Living
*Ija talked about the problems with the increasing cost of living in Poland against the static wage payments. This would cause problems with EEA National that come to live and work in Poland. However, if you manage to bag yourself and international job the wages are in line with the coast of living.
* European Orphan
Due to the free movement Poland is seeing an increasing number of ‘europena orphans’ parents that go abroad to live and work are leaving their children with wither family or friends. Sometimes they send money back to the family and sometimes they return. Either way the children are bereft. This is then having a knock on effect with their behavior and development within school due to the feelings of abandonment. The wider effects of the ‘european orphan’ are not know. However, i belive the ripple effect could go on for years.
*divorcing
If you marry a German national and you are unlucky enough for your marriage to fail. If you have children, problems will be afoot! Now i’m no divorce expert for Germany so forgive me if my fact are not entirely correct………. when getting a divorce in a german court the court will grant the custody of the children to the ‘german’ parent and then forbid the ‘non’ german parent to communicate to the child in there mothers tongue. I also heard if the german parent subsequently dies the child can be put up for fostering!!! Shocking, if true!
Land
Another one for you: and again im no historian or property expert! After the 2nd world war, Germany lost a bit of land to Poland (a whole chunk actually) To balance this out Poland gave a chunk of land to the Soviet Union. When i say ‘gave’ Poland didn’t really have a say in either decision. Anyway the German houses on the chunk of land were abandoned and the Polish moved in. Years later german descendents of the abandoned houses came back to Poland to claim the houses as their own. They were successful in some cases as the administration in Poland wasnt carried out correctly.
*Child Benefit
A subject that Im very familiar with! For EEA national moving from Poland to live and work in England are able to claim CB for their children. However the UK DWP require proof that the child exists and is taking 3+ months for the claims to be processed. (they write for proof from Poland)
I will write the next part tomorrow as it’s 23.17 and i have been up since 5.45am….Yes i’m working very hard here!!
Citizens Advice Bureau, Biuro Porad Obywatelskich, in Poland is a very popular name amongst the 3rd sector. However, not only in its popularity with clients but with other organisations .hijacking the name, aims and principles to gain funding…. Successfully I might add! The Union of Polish CAB have taken action (Court) and a web-based apology was given. However, there are limits to the resources that they can utilise to stop this from happening again. One success was where a charity used the name CAB without realising. UCABx got intouch and they adported the aims and principles of CAB and are now an ‘official cab’
Part two:
The Warsaw CAB meeting:
Warsaw CAB was established in 1996, the fist CAB in Poland. The Citizens of Warsaw and the surrounding area began to receive advice and information on a whole host of different topics. This advice was greatly needed and welcomed at this one of their most challenging time. Wa
With ija Ostrowska, Manager of Warsaw CAB and the Debt co-ordinator. We talked about the work that Brent CAB (UK) and Warsaw CAB are undertaking. They are trying to use some of the practices and procedures that UK CABx use, within the Polish Debt process. One success was at a conference earlier this year where a Polish bank agreed to work with the UCABX. This project is coming to an end shortly. However, they have made some excellent progress with the debt process in Poland. They themselves admit that they have a way to go yet. However, they have made a great start!
To read up on the ‘marriage made in heaven’ that Jacqueline Carr, director of Brent CAB instigated see:
http://www.brentbrain.org.uk/BRAIN/Webpages.nsf/0/614AB54A2224ED42802577490048427A/$file/BrentCab_newsletter_Summer2010.pdf
Volunteers
Ija talked about volunteering being quite popular before the communist regime.. However, during the regime volunteering was prohibited and therefore it has taken a while for this to pick back up, but it’s getting there. The majority of the staff that work for Warsaw CAB were volunteers like myself before being succesful in obtaining paid employment.
*Social Policy
One of the main social policy work that Warsaw is involved in is inheritance of debts. For example. when a family member dies and leaves behind a debt, this debt can be passed on to family members if the family member does not ‘give up’ the right to take on the debt. The family member must do this within 6 months of the debt. Now this isn’t just about using the estate to pay the debt off. There could be no money in the estate and still the creditor will want another family member to pay this debt off. There is a campaign with all CABx to highlight this problem and its working slowly. A lot more people are aware of this issue and are seeking the appropriate advice from the bureaux.
* free movement
