Publications

CAS has submitted detailed evidence to the Government-commissioned Independent Review of Sanctions.

This briefing was provided for a Scottish Parliament members debate on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Plans to Regulate the Payday Loan Industry. Citizens Advice Bureaux across Scotland deal with 100 cases every week regarding problems with payday loan debt. CAS have made a number of recommendations that we believe will help alleviate the biggest issues clients are seeking advice on.

Citizens Advice Scotland carried out a year-long survey of members of the public who had used payday loans (November 2012 to 2013). This followed the introduction of a payday lenders ‘Good Practice Customer Charter’ which 90% of payday lenders signed up to and committed to stamping out bad practice. Our results, backed up by case studies seen at CAB, show that one year on, many of the problems still exist for borrowers, and the code of conduct is being ignored repeatedly.

Citizens Advice Scotland has reponded to the Scottish Affairs Committte's request for written evidence on how zero hours contracts affect people in Scotland.

CAS has responded to the Financial Conduct Authority's consultation on how they approach achieving their objectives in regulating financial products.

CAS has issued a response to the Competition Comission's payday lending market investigation drawing on evidence from Citizens Advice Bureaux across Scotland and callers to the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline.

CAS responds to the Fourth Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment, part of Employment Spport Allowance.  In our submission we focus on the need for effective gathering of medical evidence, on some of the adminsitrative problems seen in bureaux, and the increasing severity of the consequences of getting entitlement decisions wrong.  We make a number of recommendations to improve the system.

The UK Government’s changes to Housing Benefit have had a significant impact on claimants in Scotland. In this briefing, we have concentrated on the developing impact of the ‘bedroom tax’.

Citizens advice bureaux, and a range of other community organisations, have reported a significant rise in the number of service users who are either struggling to afford adequate food or who are experiencing a crisis where they cannot afford food at all. A range of factors are causing this trend, including falling incomes, a rise in food prices, and benefit cuts. This represents a worsening of a situation where many families were already struggling to afford adequate food. The establishment of the new food body in Scotland represents a timely opportunity to address many of the wider food-related issues that particularly affect Scotland, including food poverty, poor diet, obesity and ill health.