History of CARCT
The Citizens Advice Bureau was established on 4th September 1939 to help people deal with impact of world war two. The original bureaux were located in Pontypridd’s YCMA, Aberdare and in Trealaw, Rhondda. They helped people with a range of issues, including: allowances (benefits) for families, pensioners, widows, enquiries about prisoners of war, wounded or missing soldiers, rationing and utility furniture. The three original bureaux had all closed by 1952 and three separate entities emerged in the 1960/70’s covering all three areas of RCT. They campaigned for change on key issues, such the legalisation of abortion, refugees and consumer rights. However, both the Pontypridd and Aberdare bureau had closed by 1980 due to a lack of funding and permanent bases from which to operate.
Consequently, our current organisation began in 1981, with the formation of Pontypridd Citizens Advice Bureau. This was located in the Housing Advice Centre in Pontypridd and covered the whole of the Taf Ely Local Government District. In their first six months, two advisers and volunteers dealt with 1500 enquiries on housing, social security and unemployment. Two further bureau’ were established separately in Aberdare and Mountain Ash to cover the Cynon Valley in 1981. In 1998, Aberdare and Mountain Ash bureau formally merged to become Cynon Valley Citizens Advice Bureau.
Following the closure of Rhondda Citizens Advice Bureau in 1996, the remit of Pontypridd Citizens Advice Bureau’ was broadened to cover the whole of the Rhondda and Taff Ely area, and it became Rhondda Taff Citizens Advice Bureau.
From the late 1990’s to 2013 both Rhondda Taff Citizens Advice and Cynon Valley Citizens Advice helped people with issues such as welfare reform and financial problems. They merged to form our current legal entity in 2014 to provide one advice service that covered the whole of RCT.