AN OXFORD advice centre can continue to help those struggling with debt after Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council pledged £78,000 to support it for a further year.

Demand for Rose Hill and Donnington Advice Centre’s services continues to increase as job losses and benefit cuts force more families on the estate into debt.

Staff had feared for the future of the Ashurst Way centre, with uncertainty surrounding the renewal of existing grants, but manager Carole Roberts said that her staff would be able to continue their work thanks to the local government funding.

“We’ve got more and more people coming in to see us,” she said.

“We’ve had a 20 per cent increase in people seeking advice and that’s a number which is growing every day.

“We’ve extended our hours as much as we can to every morning and two afternoons a week. We are really worried about when the housing benefit changes come in.”

With new caps on the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) which is paid to 12,670 people on benefits or low incomes to help them pay their rent to private landlords, Oxford City Council has already admitted it is struggling to house low-income families.

The Government is now starting to apply the new LHA rates, which are based on the lowest 30 per cent of local rents, instead of the average rent, to existing as well as new claimants – making it harder to find rental property in Oxford on that budget.

Oxfordshire County Council has agreed to contribute £14,000 to the running costs of the centre and, if the city council budget is approved in February, the charity will receive a vital £64,000.

With a further £3,000 from Oxfam and more than £2,500 raised by the staff and friends of the charity through donations and sponsored events, the advice centre will be able to keep its doors open throughout 2012.

Mrs Roberts added: “We are grateful for anything.”

In order to secure the funding, the charity has had to prove its value to grants officers.

“It has been a process of talking to grants officers, sending out our AGM reports and getting publicity in the papers when we’ve done fundraising things,” she said.