Wellingborough welfare service shut by budget cuts

A welfare charity that helps vulnerable and elderly people in Northamptonshire is to close at the end of March because its core funding has been cut.

Conservative-controlled Wellingborough Borough Council, aiming to cut budgets by £1.4m and axe 100 jobs, said some discretionary funding would be cut too.

Wellingborough Welfare Rights says no other help organisation does its job of providing support to the vulnerable.

The council said the Citizens Advice service could carry on its work.

But Audrey Ellis, who has worked for Wellingborough Welfare Rights for almost two decades, said: "We are the only people who go to vulnerable people's homes to help them fill out complicated forms.

"Some of them may be elderly, mentally ill or have learning difficulties. We help them with their benefits claims and can represent them at tribunals."