The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016).
Our objectives and activities
Our purpose – We exist to shape a society where people face far fewer problems.
Our two-year business and development plan is aligned with the wider Citizens Advice Transforming Together Strategy.
Our 3 missions are:
Provide advice fit for the future: Be there for people when they need us in the ways that help make the biggest impact;
Close the gap: End the disparities in access and experience for marginalised people;
Take early action: Prevent more people reaching crisis by addressing problems earlier.
Our 3 year horizons are articulations of our strategic direction and will be supported by:
Who we support:
Our information and advice is available to everyone;
Structural inequalities lead to certain people facing disadvantages, making them more likely to need our help, and we prioritise their needs.
How we deliver:
Provide free, independent, confidential and impartial information and advice;
Use the power of our data to advocate and target solutions to underlying root causes of issues;
We learn, adapt and innovate.
Our Strategic Priorities
Our business outcomes and performance indicators align themselves to our strategic priorities which can be found in our 3-year business plan, reviewed annually, and our organisation’s culture is underpinned by our Values, ‘Our 4 C’s:
Connect
Working closely together to deliver for our community;
Sharing what we know to help others;
Building trusted relationships and keeping our promises.
Change
Being excited to try new things, take risks & learn from our experiences;
Identifying opportunities and suggesting improvements;
Responding to the challenges we face with courage and optimism.
Compassionate
Celebrating our uniqueness and harnessing our collective strength for good;
Actively helping one another, whatever the problem;
Listen and act with empathy.
Committed
Showing a “We can” attitude;
Being the best version of ourselves;
Doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
Research and Campaigns
Research and Campaigns is a twin aim of our service. It aims to improve the policies and practices that affect people's lives. As a service we have a huge amount of insight and data about the problems our clients and their wider communities face. Through research and campaigns, we use this insight to:
Help us research issues further
Influence decision makers to change policies and practices
Campaign to get decision makers to change policies and practices.
In 2024/25 660 evidence forms were submitted to National Citizens Advice on a wide range of topics from benefits, employment, debt, housing, education, consumer, legal and immigration highlighting issues affecting clients at a policy level and we engaged in a wide range of strategic and operational activities across Dudley, Wolverhampton and the wider Black Country to help influence decision makers on issues that affect our clients the most.
We addressed 177 discrimination issues. We learnt that out of areas such as housing, employment, legal, domestic abuse/violence, education, hate crime:
Discrimination in employment was our highest demand at 52%. Barriers to employment for those with support needs are still prevalent and the discrimination people face in finding and sustaining meaningful volunteering and employment opportunities that help alleviate loneliness and isolation and a lift out of poverty is varied and devastating in their consequences to people’s lives;
Domestic violence/domestic abuse was our second highest discrimination demand at 28%;
As in the previous year, issues affecting the most vulnerable and poorest in our communities are deep seated and broad reaching;
Inequalities continue to dominate income and health for certain communities/individuals.
The demand for our services continues to increase
Following on from the previous year, we continued to experience how our local communities are being affected by many major changes as a consequence of the ongoing cost of living crisis, resulting in a year on year increase in the need for our information, advice and guidance services and 2024/25 was no exception.
Dudley Borough is the 91st and Wolverhampton is the 24th most deprived out of the 317 Local authorities in England in 24/25. The same challenges we face, as a charity, in helping those most vulnerable in our communities persisted in 24/25:
The complexity of the support needs of clients accessing our services and the increased number of advice issues per client, compared to previous periods in our charity’s history means we can’t meet the demand for our services. As an example, we only managed to answer 36.7% of calls in our contact centre;
All areas of people’s lives continue to buckle under significant pressure due to the cost of living crisis, from unaffordable housing (in both rent and mortgage sector), significant inflation beyond wage increases, reduction in access and over-subscribed statutory provision resulting in the deterioration of quality of life for many with long term health conditions. This plays out in that our client journey is longer, more complicated and barriers to successful outcomes for clients are increasing;
Welfare benefit gaps resulting in those most vulnerable in our communities are facing poverty where choosing ‘heating or eating’ is a daily dilemma and how we can ensure those that need us the most get access to our services quickly;
And health injustice – where health inequalities are now extremely visible and the wider determinants of health are not accessible to everyone means people are coming to us more sick and ill than previously recognised.
As a consequence of the challenges, you will see in our annual accounts that the Board of Trustees decided to designate reserves to support sustainability relating to meeting the demand for our services with the introduction of processes and products to support innovation, increase efficiency, create capacity and increase business growth. These designated reserves will enable us to invest in technological advancement (e.g. A.I. and cyber security), develop workforce training which responds to the emerging complexities of delivering an advice service within a complex socio-economic, politically turbulent context and support agile and flexible growth by advancing our expertise into new sectors.
Partnership working
There are many local and regional opportunities for Citizens Advice Dudley and Wolverhampton to be involved to help shape and respond to strategic priorities of which these are included in our business planning objectives, such as:
The preventative agenda: Crisis response is expensive and only offers short term treatment so we help to focus on developing services to improve resilience and enable clients;
Increasing our Information and guidance services (to complement our advisor and caseworker services);
Development of health and wellbeing services focussing on health intervention away from acute settings
Supporting community resilience
Whole family including young people support
Devolved strategic priorities in particular mental health, homelessness, financial enablement, employment;
More formal collaboration with VCS partners including neighbouring Citizens Advice organisations.
It is imperative for our future sustainability that we continue to build strong partnerships with existing stakeholders and new partners and where practical and appropriate, explore more formal business arrangements.
Whatever the work that lays ahead, what is clear, is that Citizens Advice Dudley and Wolverhampton is well placed to demonstrate strong leadership at a local and regional level where opportunities for growth and development are evident, making a difference to thousands of more lives in 2025/26 and beyond.
Premises
In September 2024, we opened our second office to supplement our registered office in Dudley Town Centre. This second premises are at Victoria Street, Wolverhampton and in February 2025 we opened our doors to clients and haven’t looked back since. The information hub and IT suite, run by our info hub facilitators is proving popular with Wolverhampton residents looking for information and guidance and we have witnessed a steady increase in footfall month on month. We thank our landlord for supporting our endeavours to have a City Centre presence within Wolverhampton alongside the one in Dudley Borough.
Our Impact - Access to advice and guidance
We offer our services through face to face (digital and in person), telephone and email in 9 enquiry areas, and in this financial year, we supported:
15,437 people with advice, information and guidance (AIG) and resolved 51,176 separate advice issues
We supported a further 391 clients in our non-AIG services
24% of clients accessed us using web-chat or email
Our top five enquiry areas have been:
Benefits (38.2%)
Universal credit (30.4%)
Financial services and capability (9.8%)
Debt (9.15%)
Housing (9.14%)
Achievements and performance
We have many great things to celebrate in our organisation in 2024/25. Our workforce continues to be our number one asset and without them, paid and volunteers, we would not be able to deliver the phenomenal outcomes we have achieved. Alongside our information, advice and guidance impact statistics we also achieved the following:
Income achieved for clients: We achieved £10,574,856 of income for the clients we supported;
Debt addressed: We addressed £718,182 worth of debt;
Homelessness prevented: We prevented 1,089 people with potential/actual homelessness.
Client Satisfaction
Every year we undertake a formal review of client satisfaction and our scores from anonymous questions clients answer via SMS through Citizens Advice. Clients asked continue to say they would highly recommend our services. We continue to recognise however, that due to exponential demand for our services, it does mean client feedback also highlights that at times, people continue to struggle to receive a service from us. This reinforces why growth through differing business development initiatives is vital and we continue to campaign to highlight the need for additional investment and full cost recovery commissioning of our advice services. Below are some comments from clients who have engaged with us in 24/25:
“Dear X your kindness is deeply appreciated, thank you and I am profoundly grateful for your generous support”.
“Thank you once again for all your support and guidance with this matter, particularly with the very short timescales that were involved. Very much appreciated and was invaluable to us in helping reaching this (employment) settlement”.
"Dear X, thanks so much for your help this time and last time. Just hearing your voice again has calmed me down so much. You've been amazing, thank you so much again"
“The Home Library service is really good and has helped me a lot of the 5 years been with them.”
“Hi X, I just want to say thank you for everything (with my Debts), you have changed my life.”
“You don’t realise what you have done for me today in this short amount of time, you have been so patient and understanding with my debt situation, Thank-you for constantly messaging me trying to make an appointment with me and not giving up on me. You have been so helpful.”
“Very helpful and feel grateful for the support. Called a different organisation first and they were unable to help so signposted to you.”
“Thank you so much for helping me through all of this, it has taken the pressure off me so I can concentrate on my Cancer diagnosis and health issues now”.
“Thank you for all your support, and for listening. You have helped me handle a very difficult situation and helped me understand that I can only deal with 1 thing at a time and that is ok.”
“I feel really confident in your support and really thankful for your organisation’s support so far. I wouldn't be able to do this by myself so I'm really grateful. Thank you for being so good with me.”
“I feel that you are the only one who has listened to me and wants to help, if it wasn't for you I would have given up by now. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you for being there, your SMP course has meant I am getting out of the house. I don't know what we would do without Citizens Advice, I didn't realise you all wore such a big cap and help in so many different ways. Really appreciate the support”.
Workforce Health and Wellbeing – a strategic commitment
We continued to build on the organisation’s wellbeing and mindfulness culture that we have successfully fostered to ensure we can be an exceptional employer and volunteering organisation. This workforce priority was underpinned by the following activity achieved in 24/25:
The embedment of our 4 values and publically recognising and celebrating role models of these values across the organisation to foster an understanding of what can be achieved when we put our values at the heart of everything we do;
The collaboration with consultancy Infinity Wellness who supported us to co-design with staff and implement our Workforce Health and Wellbeing policy;
The co-creation with consultancy Infinity Wellness and launch of our new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy;
The organising of our annual conference where we looked at what we have achieved and what next to ensure our client journey is the best it can be;
Our staff satisfaction survey showed 82% either agreed or strongly agreed that we care about their wellbeing. This is up from 79% in 23/24
Our Volunteers
We have a number of roles in this reporting period that rely on volunteers to support the delivery of outcomes required by the funder: Home Library Service drivers, Self-Management Programme tutors, Reception/info hub facilitators, Advisors and Supervisors.
These roles have been pivotal in the diversification of income whilst continuing to add value to the clients that need our help. We are extremely grateful to our volunteers for their ongoing commitment. Our volunteers are of phenomenal benefit to the local community, to our stakeholders and to clients and the positive personal benefits individual volunteers experience as a consequence of volunteering for us are numerous.
It is of significance to note that our Board of Trustees are also volunteers and in this last year they have continued to commit extra time outside of board meetings, giving their knowledge and expertise in abundance to support the CEO and wider Leadership Team in the development of the organisation within an increasingly complex and challenging strategic, socio-political and financial landscape at a local, regional and national level. In particular, in this financial year, our trustees have offered their personal career expertise in the areas of health, HR and Social Policy. A special mention to Trustee Geeta Patel who always championed the rights of marginalised clients and was instrumental in the development of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy. Sadly, Geeta passed away before this policy was launched but in this report we remember the incredible long term contribution she gave to our organisation in her volunteering trustee role.
Compliance and Regulation
Citizens Advice Membership Agreement
As part of our performance quality framework, our most recent 3-year Leadership Assessment audit, completed over a number of days to asses 9 key areas: Governance, strategic business planning, risk management, financial management, people management, operational performance management, partnership working, research and campaigns and equality leadership was extremely successful.We achieved green (top score) in all 9 areas meeting the competency level expected.
Advice Quality Standard (AQS) accreditation
We hold the accredited Advice Quality Standard mark in generalist advice and are accreditation for AQS in Casework for benefits and debt with the addition of accreditation of Housing casework within this year. This is significantly important to emphasise the high level expertise in which we operate in these three high demand advice areas.
Money Advice and Pension Service (MaPS)
Our commissioned debt service through the Money Advice and Pension Service is subject to a formal audit of the quality of our debt advice and the independent assessments of our debt casework means we are able to continue to deliver this important advice area in our organisation.
Housing (Legal Aid)
Our commissioned housing loss prevention advice service and in court duty scheme funded through the Legal Aid Agency is subject to a formal audit of the quality of our housing advice and the independent assessments of our housing casework means we are able to continue to deliver this important advice area in the organisation for people eligible for legal aid.
Financial Institute of Money Advisors
All our debt caseworkers are registered with the institute and we have maintained membership of this so that staff can achieve their mandatory annual continuous professional development points as debt caseworkers through ongoing learning and training.
Financial Conduct Authority
We have submitted our Finance Conduct Authority returns and are compliant in this area relating to the debt advice we give.
Business Planning for 2025-26
Our business plan narrates a vision for our evolving organisation, continuing to capture the outcomes required to ensure sustainability, strategic relevance, and what people need to maintain and/or improve their quality of life based on our three Missions:
Provide advice fit for the future: Be there for people when they need us in the ways that help make the biggest impact;
Close the gap: End the disparities in access and experience for marginalised people;
Take early action: Prevent more people reaching crisis by addressing problems earlier.
Financial review for 25/26:
Total income for the year was £1,915,890 as of 31st March 2025. The characteristics of our sustained financial viability for the next financial year and beyond can be described as follows:
Increased safeguards within our financial and human resources, taking calculated risks to drive innovation whilst sustaining core funding;
Maintain financial stability within an increasing funding culture of deficit funding (not full cost recovery);
Support our growth agenda through increased business development opportunities utilising non-advice front line staff;
Reduce overheads per project through growth;
It is the policy of the charity that unrestricted funds should be maintained at a level equivalent to between three and six month's expenditure. The Trustees consider that reserves at this level will ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, they will be able to continue the charity's current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised. This level of reserves has been maintained throughout the year.
The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks articulated in the organisation’s risk appetite plan, and risk management and compliance register.
The process of risk management for Citizens Advice Dudley and Wolverhampton is ongoing and regular monitoring and assessment is undertaken to identify new risks as they occur, to ensure that they are dealt with and to evaluate previously identified risks to ensure strategies are still relevant to minimise or mitigate those risks.
The 11 key risk areas that are reviewed are: Governance; Strategy and Business sustainability; Financial; Legal and Compliance (including H&S); Management; Workforce (including. EDI); Operations; Stakeholder (including reputation); Technology; Information and data security; Premises.
A robust business continuity plan is in place to ensure the ongoing effective running of the organisation if any incidents/adverse events occur.
Our national body Citizens Advice also undertakes an annual review process with the organisation to ensure controls are in place to mitigate identified risks and to understand the overall level of risk to which the organisation is currently exposed. The current overall risk level has been assessed as low.
Structure, governance and management
The Organisation is made up of a Board of Trustees who have responsibility for the overall governance of the organisation. They discharge the day to day running of the organisation to the Chief Executive Officer. Underneath the CEO there is a Senior leadership team and an Operational leadership team. As of 31st March 2025 we had a Director of Services, a Director of Finance, Head of Finance, Head of Business Support, 2 x Head of Services, 2 Service Delivery Managers and a Business support manager. Our ICT is outsourced to Pedmore Computer Services who run our IT platforms.
The operational running of our organisation includes a business administration support team, paid and volunteer generalist and specialist advisors/ caseworkers, co-ordinators, info hub facilitators, SMP tutors, welfare benefit guiders, technical and quality supervisors, referral support assessors and contact centre assessors.
The Trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
Trustee recruitment opportunities are advertised through our national body’s Citizens Advice website, our local website, bespoke adverts, social media and by word of mouth. Anybody interested in becoming a trustee is invited to complete an application form which if meeting the skills requirements, will be invited to an interview. If successful, the potential trustee is invited to observe a trustee meeting and then is formally co-opted onto the board as a trustee and then formally as a Director at the next AGM. Each new trustee undertakes an induction process into the role and organisation. Each new trustee is offered a mentor who is one of the experienced trustee members.
None of the Trustees have any beneficial interest in the company. All of the Trustees are members of the company and guarantee to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up. The company’s current policy concerning the payment of trade creditors is to follow the CBI’s Prompt Payers Code. Copies are available from the CBI, Cannon Place, 78 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6HN. The company’s current policy concerning the payment of trade creditors is to:
Settle the terms of the payment with suppliers when agreeing the terms of each transaction;
Ensure that suppliers are made aware of the terms of payment by inclusion of the relevant terms in contracts and;
Pay in accordance with the company’s contractual and other legal obligations.
No preference dividends were paid. The directors do not recommend payment of a final dividend. The Charity also co-operates and liaises with a number of other advisory services, local charities and Council departments on behalf of clients. Where one of the Trustees holds the position of Trustee/Director of another charity, they may be involved in discussion regarding that other charity, but not in the ultimate decision making process.
CK Limited were appointed as auditor to the company and a resolution to choose our new auditors will be put at our Annual General Meeting on 2nd December 2025.
The Trustees, who are also the directors of Citizens Advice Dudley and Wolverhampton (legal name: Wolverhampton Citizens Advice Bureaux) for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company Law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Disclosure of information to auditor
Each of the Trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.
Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Wolverhampton Citizens Advice Bureaux (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The Trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, which includes the directors' report prepared for the purposes of company law, is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors' report included within the trustees' report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the Trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the Trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
We identified and assessed the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, in respect of irregularities whether due to fraud or error, or non compliance with laws and regulations and then designed and performed audit procedures responsive to those risks, including obtaining audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that are applicable to the Company by discussion and enquiry with the directors and management team and our general knowledge and experience of the charity sector.
We focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation, data protection, employment, and health and safety legislation;
We assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management, reviewing correspondence with relevant regulators.
We assessed the susceptibility of the Company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur. Audit procedures performed included but were not limited to:
Discussions with directors and management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
Confirming our understanding of controls by performing a walk through test or observation and enquiry;
Performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
Identifying and testing journal entries;
Agreeing funding to underlying service agreements and ensuring income is recognised in the correct period;
Agreeing classification of funding between restricted and unrestricted funds and ensuring amounts are spent for the purposes intended;
Reviewing the allocation of direct and support costs and ensuring comparable to previous periods;
Reviewing unusual or unexpected transactions; and
Agreeing the financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation.
Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Wolverhampton Citizens Advice Bureaux is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 2nd Floor Dudley House, 9-11 Stone Street, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1NS.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Income is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable and represents amounts receivable for goods and services provided in the normal course of business, net of discounts, VAT and other sales related taxes.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges allocated on the portion of the asset's use.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Provisions are recognised when the charity has a legal or constructive present obligation as a result of a past event, it is probable that the charity will be required to settle that obligation and a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation.
The amount recognised as a provision is the best estimate of the consideration required to settle the present obligation at the reporting end date, taking into account the risks and uncertainties surrounding the obligation. Where the effect of the time value of money is material, the amount expected to be required to settle the obligation is recognised at present value. When a provision is measured at present value, the unwinding of the discount is recognised as a finance cost in net income/(expenditure) in the period in which it arises.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
Fund accounting
General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the company and which have not been designated for other purposes.
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.
Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the company for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Determine the basis of allocation of support costs between restricted and unrestricted funds.
Expenditure on charitable activities
Premises costs
Staff and Volunteers
Office costs
Professional/consultancy fees
Other Direct Costs
Payments to partners and subcontractors
None of the Trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration during the year, and a total of £18 travelling expenses were reimbursed (2024: £28).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
During the year key management personnel received remuneration and benefits of £358,788 (2024: £455,051)
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
During the year £9,789 was transferred from unrestricted funds to restricted funds to cover deficits on the following projects: BC Macmillan, EAP and HSL. In 2023/2024 £20,782 was transferred from restricted funds to unrestricted funds to cover deficits on certain projects. The restricted funds carried forwards are either ongoing projects or projects currently suspended and will be spent in line with their original purpose over an agreed timeline with funders.
More detail about how the organisation is balancing the financial challenges being experienced within the sector with the incredible impact our projects have on the communities in which we serve can be found in our annual report at the beginning of these accounts. The largest restricted fund income streams are summarised as below:
Wolverhampton City Council - A commissioned service to deliver advice and information on welfare, benefits, and housing for Wolverhampton residents.
MaPS - A team of specialist debt advisors, funded by the Money Advice Service, to provide money advice to clients either digitally or face to face. Clients are provided with personalised advice to maximise income, deal with their debts and manage their money effectively. The aim is to stabilise the individual’s current financial situation, put in a plan to manage it in the future and empower them to deal with any future financial challenges.
Pension Wise - Department for Work and Pensions project subcontracted to the charity by National Citizens Advice to deliver free and impartial guidance to help people understand the options available to them regarding their pension. This service is delivered across the Black Country and in parts of Birmingham.
BC Macmillan - A project commissioned by Macmillan to provide a specialist welfare benefits caseworker service for cancer patients across the Black Country either digitally, in hospital or outreach settings.
DEP Projects - DMBC funded contract for Dudley residents to provide a combined information, advice, advocacy, well-being, direct payments and scrutiny service. This is delivered in collaboration with partner agencies in their area of expertise.
The income funds of the charity include the following designated and general funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes:
Due to the current financial climate the Board is increasing the number of operating months from 3.5 to 4 for its expenses reserves policy which equates to £817,020 (2023/24 £778,330).
Designations continue to be maintained for areas of proposed spending which currently do not have funding but are seen as essential for developing the organisation; Technological and digital (A.I.) development and workforce health & wellbeing to the value of £78,189. An additional fund has been identified for research and development amounting to £10,000.
Premises designations have been increased as new expenditure is identified as follows: The development of the new leased premises in Wolverhampton £16,771, partial unfunded running costs of new Wolverhampton premises £99,750 and redecoration of the existing property in Dudley £6,924.
Recognising the need to increase capacity to grow the charity, the Board have agreed to fund from reserves, posts to support this objective. In addition, the charity is setting aside reserves to support ongoing Management Training and commission further development of one of our DEP funded projects, the Self-Management program for clients with long term health conditions, these total £226,446.
The charity recognises that the actual infrastructure needed to support its projects, is not covered by its current funding streams. Unabsorbed overheads of £110,549 have been agreed by the trustees to be set aside for the financial year 2025/2026 to cover these. Also a designation has been made of £30,000 to procure where appropriate business development capacity to support business growth.
Designation of funds continues for the DMBC One Voluntary contract which is not full cost recovery, subject to supplementary funding not being able to be sourced amounting to £72,157.
Also a reserve has been included for one year contracts to support staff salaries for 4 months, should the contracts not be renewed post March 2026 while new funding is sourced equalling £10,093.
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2024 - none).