A CHARITY worker based in Dorchester has been helping service families fight for their rights.

Christine Land from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) is working on a project with the Royal British Legion (RBL) to offer money and benefits advice to armed forces personnel, veterans and their families.

Since the project was launched in October 2008, she has seen nearly 400 separate clients and helped them claim more than £500,000 in benefits as well as having nearly £1.3million in benefits written off.

She is now inundated with requests for help and says only funding restrictions are preventing the organisations involved in the project from carrying out more and more work.

Christine said: “My target for last quarter was to take on 27 new cases – in fact, I had 59.

“If we had the funding I think we could do ten times the work.

“We deal with a wide range of clients from soldiers serving in Afghanistan to widows of Second World War veterans.

“They have problems including debt, benefit claims and housing that CAB experts can help with and the RBL can offer additional support and advice.”

Christine’s role as RBL benefit and money advisor is funded by the RBL and the Royal Airforce Benevolent Fund.

The project also funds a caseworker in Christchurch and between them they help people all over the county.

Christine said: “We tend to think of Dorset as a fortunate place to live but underneath the beautiful setting, life can be very hard indeed for many people. There is poverty and deprivation as well as wealth in this county.

“It’s also an area that has a lot of service personnel and their families.

“Many of my clients are in Weymouth and Portland though my patch stretches from Lyme Regis to Shaftesbury and across to the Purbecks.” Dorchester Bureau manager Daniel Cadisch said: “This project has been a great success.

“Current funding continues until September and I am confident it will continue.

“It is a good example of two charities teaming up to provide an extra service to people who badly need help to solve their problems.”

“The CAB would welcome donations which would allow us to further expand the services we already offer to the community.”

To contact the CAB for a donation form contact 0845 2310400 or visit <&bh"http://www.dorchestercab.org.uk">www.dorchestercab.org.uk<&eh>.

Christine can be contacted at the Bureau on 01305 259358 or by email at rbl@dorchester.cabnet.org.uk

Attempting to ease the stress

Christine Land was contacted by a 33-year-old soldier who had returned from duty in Afghanistan.

His youngest child suffered from a medical condition and needed special treatment.

The soldier wanted to know what help Christine – as the RBL benefits and monetary advisor and a trained member of the Dorchester CAB staff – could offer to his family, especially when he was next re-assigned for active duty.

Christine visited the family and discovered they were entitled to additional benefits, which would greatly ease their financial pressures and the stress that this causes.

She was able to provide information about local support groups that could assist the family further in their understanding of their child’s condition.

She was also able to assist in arranging for a Royal British Legion grant to help with the family’s travel costs to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London for the child’s treatment.

With the father now on duty, the mother is less burdened by the strain and worries she had experienced before her husband turned to Dorchester CAB to ask for help.