Debt charity is best in UK

MARIE-CLAIRE KIDD visited the newly-revamped Bradford headquarters of Christians Against Poverty to find out what makes it Britain's best charity to work for and how it has expanded its work helping people on an international scale to deal with spiralling personal debt.

Bradford's fastest-growing charity is the best to work for in Britain, according to its staff.

Debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) scooped the accolade at the prestigious UK Charity Awards in London - and a whistle-stop tour around its newly-refurbished offices goes some way towards explaining why its staff are so happy.

The charity has spent £1.3 million on the purchase and renovation of Jubilee Mill in North Street, on the hill above Bradford Cathedral. The building has now been valued at £2 million - "a great asset for us as a charity", according to founder and international director John Kirkby.

The 140-year-old mill, previously Bradford Boxmakers, has four storeys which now boast a training suite for CAP centre managers, an airy common room, games room and canteen area, complete with table tennis and pool tables for staff, and a suite of air-conditioned offices for CAP's 50 Bradford-based employees.

The oak beams, stone stairs and brick walls are full of character and the view over the city is no less than stunning.

There are also two floors of fully-occupied, rented office space, accommodating 14 local firms, which help make the operation financially sustainable.

Set up in a bedroom ten years ago with just £10, CAP now turns over £2.6m and, more importantly, changes thousands of lives for the better every year.

CAP is a national debt counselling charity, which specialises in helping the poorest of the poor to budget and save their way out of debt.

Professional debt counsellors at 41 centres based in churches throughout the UK offer money advice, practical help and financial education to debtors in their own homes.

Key to the charity's success is its very own banking system, developed by John, who worked in the finance and banking industry for 17 years before starting the charity.

It allows clients to pay one regular, agreed payment through their local bank, and the system does the rest, often paying scores of payments to dozens of different companies and organisations.

John says: "We've come a long way in ten years from nothing.

"In the early 1990s I had a tragic time. My first marriage failed, I ended up living in a bedsit with my two daughters. Basically we were destitute.

"I recovered, it took me four years to do that, but I never forgot what it was like to be poor and in debt."

After finding God - "the best thing that ever happened to me" - and marrying his second wife Lizzie, John took the plunge and gave up his job to pursue what he believed in.

Fresh from his honeymoon, and relying on donations to further his cause, he began on a small scale, counselling and helping local people with money problems.

Now the charity employs 110 people in the UK, 50 of them in Bradford, and is expanding rapidly internationally, opening between seven and ten new centres every four months, the equivalent of one every two weeks.

There will be 15 centres in Australia by early next year, and the team will set up branches in New Zealand in November and South Africa next spring.

In the UK 41 centres will grow to 50, as nine new managers undertake CAP training.

In fact, in Bradford, CAP is so overwhelmed by demand for its services that it has a waiting list of clients - and it is hoping that its expansion programme will lead to more centres in the district to help it address the clear need for more help locally.

CAP currently deals with about £20 million worth of debt. Most of the big financial institutions, including the high street banks, now agree to stop interest on CAP's clients' loans and accept their payment terms without negotiation, such is the trust the charity has developed in its ten years.

This year it has been showered with awards including a National Business Award for customer focus, a Centre for Social Justice Award for helping vulnerable people and its latest accolade, the UK Charity Awards prize for best charity to work for.

CAP was also commended at the UK Charity Awards for best use of technology and charity of the year.

There will be plenty to celebrate on Saturday, September 30, when CAP will play host to 1,500 people from all over the world on its 10th birthday.

Mr Kirkby said: "The first person who gave money, the first life-changer, will be there, so we'll be honouring the past, and we'll also be talking about our vision for the future."

By 2021, CAP aims to run 300 debt counselling centres in the UK, covering all the major urban centres, and repeat that level of coverage in at least five countries worldwide.

"We're on target at this rate," said John. "We have a very, very high reputation in the finance industry. We punch above our weight.

"We have to have some perspective, it's just a drop in the ocean, but we're seeing lives changing."

CAP turned my life around

Debbie Thompson, of East Bowling, was the second person Christians Against Poverty helped back in 1996.

Debbie, 43, said: "To start off with everything was fine. I was married with two children and the rest of it. I had a car on HP, and we took out a loan on a fridge from a local store without even thinking about it.

"For a long time that was okay, but I wasn't very well with my second pregnancy and we had business problems, "It just snowballed. We completely lost it. We were robbing Peter to pay Paul. The house was repossessed, we had no social life, it was terrible."

Debbie kept her financial crisis secret from friends and family.

"You keep it hidden," she said. "No-one knew at all.

"In the middle of it all I became a Christian and told my vicar. He said there's this new thing in Bradford'."

It was then that Debbie was given CAP's very first leaflet, which led her to contact the charity's founder John Kirkby.

"He told us we could get it sorted, which I found unbelievable at the time, but we had no choice, we held on to him as our only hope."

Debbie's first step was to tell everyone that she was in financial trouble.

"He took all my bills away and came back with a business plan. Very quickly it turned around. Just knowing he was there changed everything."

Debbie learned how to budget, and began saving, and she still uses the skills she learned ten years later.

She now works for CAP as staff welfare officer and prayer co-ordinator, is a trustee of the charity and sits on CAP's international committee.

She said: "I've been debt-free for years now. I didn't sleep or wake up properly for years. It's taken a while to come out of it, but now just to wake up and not have a great big thing sat on you is brilliant."

Debbie says she is happy just to watch her two teenage sons enjoying bacon sandwiches with their friends without worrying about whether there is enough bread or bacon to go round.

"They can have treats, go swimming or to the pictures," she said. "There's a difference between manageable credit and being silly."

• Christians Against Poverty is currently oversubscribed and unable to take on new clients in the Bradford area. People who wish to seek help in dealing with debt are asked to contact the Consumer Credit Counselling Service on freephone 0800 138 1111.