Nationwide teams up with Citizens Advice

Britain''s biggest building society has teamed up with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to provide free financial advice.

Nationwide will provide £3 million to the three-year partnership to help with the recruitment and training of 1,300 volunteers.

The volunteers will provide advice on money matters and financial issues across the UK.

Maxine Taylor, director for corporate affairs at mortgage lender Nationwide, says: "Our new partnership with the CAB will fit excellently with our existing financial capability programmes."

David Harker, chief executive of the CAB, added: "Debt problems continue to be the number one issue seen in the bureau."

Last year the CAB dealt with 1.7 million debt problems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – more than 6,500 cases every working day.

According to figures published by the Financial Services Authority today, the number of new mortgage arrears cases has remained constant since early 2007 at around 54,000 each quarter and the total amount of arrears debt stands at £1.6 billion.

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