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Spotlight on: Legal

Citizens advice bureaux are a key part of the wider landscape of publicly funded legal advice, helping clients with thousands of legal issues each year and resolving thousands of issues before they reach the legal stage. Bureaux operate nine in-court advice projects across the country and represent clients at thousands of tribunals and court cases each year. 

News

  1. 25 Jun 2023

  2. 25 Apr 2022

    by Andrew Fraser, CAS Strong Communities team.

    This article was first published in the Herald on 25 April 2022.

  3. 14 Mar 2024

    A new court ruling is set to offer people greater protection when moving to Universal Credit from legacy benefits, particularly people fleeing domestic abuse.

    Transitional Element (TE), an additional element of Universal Credit (UC) granted to those migrating from legacy benefit in certain circumstances who will be paid less UC than they received in legacy benefit, is gradually reduced as people's circumstances change.

    The consequences of how TE reduces (erodes) can be stark. Those fleeing domestic abuse, for example, will lose any TE entitlement either when they transition from being part of a couple to a single person, or when they move between temporary and permanent accommodation. This is because Housing Benefit provided to those in temporary accommodation is a local authority administered benefit not reflected in UC calculations. In contrast, Housing Element (HE), which helps low income people in mainstream tenancies pay the rent, is a component of the UC system. When HE is paid, it is regarded as a “relevant increase” in UC entitlement and therefore subtracted from the TE awarded. Since HE is likely to be higher than TE, that means a loss of TE.

Publications

  1. Modernising Consumer Markets
    Gail Walker

    Publication date: July 2018

    CAS welcomes the Consumer Green Paper and a stronger push by the UK government for greater simplicity, transparency and fairness for those that purchase and use goods and services.

  2. CAS response to consultation on permanency of certain criminal justice measures
    Hyo Eun Shin - Strong Communities Team

    Publication date: February 2024

    CAS has responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on making certain criminal justice measures in the CRR Act 2022 permanent and on modernising criminal justice procedures through digital processes.

     

  3. CAS Strong Communities team

    Publication date: August 2023

    CAS has responded to the Equality, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee's call for views on the Legal Services Regulation (Scotland) Bill.

    In our response:

    ›     CAS reiterates our view that the Roberton model of a single independent regulator would deliver the greatest improvements for consumers in terms of transparency, accountability, and clarity of process. We underline our disappointment that the Bill has disregarded this model in favour of adding more layers of complexity to the existing landscape.

    ›     We express our disappointment that the promise of a regulatory regime with consumers at its heart does not seem to be delivered in the substance of the draft Bill – with many opportunities missed to strengthen the consumer interest.

    ›     We call for a clearer statutory role for consumer representation on the proposed regulatory committees (as distinct from generic lay representation), as well as consumer involvement in setting minimum standards for regulators.

    ›     We query the rationale for affording a lesser degree of scrutiny and accountability to current category 2 regulators in the draft Bill.

    ›     We welcome measures aimed at streamlining the complaints process including reducing complaints handling time, extending the remit to non-regulated for-profit providers, and introducing hybrid complaints. However, we caution that the retention of various layers and channels a complaint can take fails to deliver a simpler pathway for consumers, and we express concern about the removal of compensation for conduct complaints, as well as removal of the right to appeal SLSC decisions to an external body.

    ›     We welcome the expanded remit of the SLSC’s Consumer Panel but caution against the panel being seen as the catch all consumer scrutiny forum without increased resources to enable the panel to discharge these functions.

    ›     Regarding ministerial oversight, we call for greater consideration of the evidence sources for these interventions to be triggered, and the capacity this may require from the named bodies as well as consumer bodies fielding this data.

    ›     We call for urgent clarity regarding the definitions of ‘fee, gain and reward’, upon which third sector liability for entity regulation hinges. The variability of definitions of restricted and unrestricted legal services also poses concerns for the advice sector and we call for statutory consultation with these providers in the event of any change being considered.

    ›     We welcome the intention of the draft Bill to stimulate diversification in the legal services market, but we remain unclear how or whether the current provisions would enable this in practice. It remains difficult to envisage how the provisions around ABS and practicing restrictions might address the significant gaps in provision which CAS has repeatedly highlighted, without corresponding consideration of the pressing issue of legal aid reform.

    To read our full response download here.

  4. Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill
    Kyle Scott & Hyo Eun Shin

    Publication date: July 2023

    Citizens Advice Scotland has provided written evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee in relation to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill 

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