Citizens Advice Scotland helped recover £120 million for some of the country's poorest while supporting 310,000 people in 2015/16
Scotland’s citizens advice service dished out one million pieces of advice last year and helped some of the country’s most vulnerable people claim over £120 million they were due.
Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), which has a network of 61 member Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs), announced the figures in its first ever report designed to show the impact of its services.
In 2015/16 CABs along with the CAS consumer advice phone line and specialist help unit, supported over 310,000 individuals in 2015/16 – equivalent to over 1 in every 14 adults in Scotland.
Of that figure 30%, just over 93,000 were from Scotland’s most deprived areas.
By helping clients access the benefits they are entitled to CAS says it has helped thousands of Scots avoid crisis situations like poverty, debt and homelessness.
We are very proud of the work of the service ... it has a huge positive impact
For every £1 of core funding it received, the report says CAS returned £11 of value to local communities.
The impressive figures come after what has been a difficult period for CAS.
In June this year, TFN revealed Dominic Notarangelo sensationally quit as chair after it was leaked that an independent review slated his leadership.
When officially published in August, the review called for a root-and-branch reform of the organisation making 32 recommendations – 13 of which were classed as high priority.
CAS has called a general meeting for 23 November where its member bureaux will vote whether to accept the recommended reforms.
The Face Value Impact Report shows that last year CABs employed 3,400 staff, of whom 71% were volunteers offering on average sever hours per week.
Volunteers received six months of training and just under half (42%) went on to further education or employment.
The most common issues recorded by bureaux – which operate as individual charities – were related to benefits and tax credits.
In 2015/16 staff helped clients complete 27,000 benefit forms alone and helped them recover over £72 million – up from £59 million the previous year.
Debt advice was also a major issue dealt with by CABs with over 95,000 new queries raised.
The most common debt-related issue that clients sought advice on was council tax arrears.
Positively, the number of people reporting issues with payday loans fell by 64%.
Private renting queries, however continued to dominate bureaux which recorded over 40,000 new housing issues last year, similar to in 2014/15.
Launching the report, CAS chief executive Anne Lavery said: “Citizens Advice Scotland is proud to present this impact report on behalf of the Scottish Citizens Advice service, which is made up of 61 independent, local Citizens Advice Bureaux, specialist phone lines, and a public advice website, along with the national umbrella body, CAS.
“We are very proud of the work of the service, and of the fact that our advice is completely free, impartial and confidential. Our service has a huge positive impact, not just on the individual people we help but also on their families and on the wider community.
“In addition to the individuals we help, we are also very proud of the wider impact we have. By analysing our case evidence at a national level, we have a powerful database of information on societal issues. We provide this information to governments and decision makers to help them improve services and policies for the better.”
