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12 Dec 2013
CAS staff were at the Scottish Parliament this morning to launch our new Christmas poster campaign on payday loans. We were joined by MSPs from all over Scotland – and by a very special guest all the way from Lapland.
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12 Dec 2013
A very special visitor was at the Scottish Parliament this morning as MSPs prepared to debate the dangers of payday loans.
Santa Claus himself joined Citizens Advice Scotland staff outside the front of the Parliament at 10.30am to help them launch their new poster campaign. The posters, which will be displayed from today at every CAB in Scotland, are designed to spread the message that payday loans can land people in crisis debt, and that other forms of credit are available.
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11 Dec 2013
This week we will be distributing Christmas-themed posters and postcards on issue of payday loans to the Scottish CAB network to put up in offices and hand out to clients.
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2 Dec 2013
The Dundee Bureau Social Policy Team (DSPT) is dedicated to maximising the awareness of the national Payday Loans Campaign locally.
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27 Nov 2013
New figures from the Money Advice Service show that 9m people in the UK are struggling with serious debts, but only 1.5m have sought help from advice agencies.
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25 Nov 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland have given an ‘unqualified welcome’ to the UK government’s announcement of a cap on the cost of payday loans.
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21 Nov 2013
Many payday lenders in Scotland are breaking the promises they made last year to clean up their act – according to new research published Thursday 21st November by Citizens Advice Scotland.
One year ago this week, the main payday lenders published a voluntary Code of Conduct in which they acknowledged some wrongdoing in the industry, and set out a number of cast-iron guarantees to improve their operations so they offered fair and responsible lending in future. CAS has been asking payday loan clients all year to report their experiences, and in our report card today we can show that lenders have in fact broken most of the pledges in their own code.
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14 Nov 2013
The charity StepChange has revealed figures today (Thursday 14th November) showing that Scotland ‘leads the UK’ in the numbers of people in debt to payday lenders.
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8 Nov 2013
A Scottish Citizens Advice Bureau is to use the beautiful game as a way of helping people beat the misery of payday loan debts.
Payday lenders told Parliament yesterday that their services do not lead people into financial problems. The CAB service begs to differ, pointing out that over 100 Scots a week contact their CAB because they are in crisis debt to a payday lender – that’s a third higher than the number this time last year.
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5 Nov 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland have said that payday lenders are destroying the lives of thousands of people in Scotland.
Leading Payday Loans companies gave evidence to the House of Commons this morning, and defended their business by saying only ‘2 or 3 per cent’ of their customers got into financial difficulty.
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4 Nov 2013
Scottish CAB advisers have seen huge increases in the numbers of people who are in rent arrears, following the introduction of the Bedroom Tax.
As a BBC Scotland report shows that Scottish Councils are owed £3m in rent arrears because of the recent changes, Citizens Advice Scotland have reported similar trends in CAB cases.
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15 Oct 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland have said a major factor in the growth of personal debt in Scotland is cases of people taking out one loan to pay off another. CAS also says many lenders encourage this – despite pledges not to do so.
Figures published today by the Debt Advisory Centre Scotland (DACS) show that nearly 160,000 Scots borrowed money to make a loan repayment in July. DACS also found that Scots aged 25-34 were the most likely to do this, with men more likely than women. The full DACS press release is re-produced below.
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2 Oct 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland have urged the UK government to re-think its welfare reforms, as figures reveal that around half a million Scots had to borrow money this summer to pay for food.
The Debt Advisory Centre Scotland (DACS) has published figures showing that 1 in 10 Scots (530,000 people) had to get a ‘food loan’ in July. The figure was twice as high for young Scots (aged 18-24).
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20 Sep 2013
CAS has responded to consultations on payday loans and the draft Consumer Bill of Rights. As ever, the publications take in evidence which we have collated from across the bureau network to ground our arguments in the experiences of Scots.
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19 Sep 2013
Eight Scottish Councils are on a list of the 20 UK areas worst affected by the Bedroom Tax - according to figures released today by the TUC. The statistics show that nearly one third of Council tenants affected by the bedroom tax are now behind in their rent, and so are in danger of being evicted.
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19 Sep 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has welcomed the news that the Office of Fair Trading is recommending a series of reforms to the pensions industry.
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16 Sep 2013
The number of Scots who are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage has been revealed today according to new figures from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) and the Debt Advisory Centre Scotland (DACS).
DACS have revealed that 3% of Scots (126,500) borrowed money to pay their rent or mortgage last month, with those aged 24-44 particularly vulnerable to this.
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11 Sep 2013
Citizens Advice Scotland have welcomed new support, announced in the Scottish budget, to help people who are hit by the bedroom tax, but have said that even more funding is needed.
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5 Aug 2013
The Citizens Advice service across the UK urges payday loan customers to fight back against unscrupulous lenders.
Three in four payday borrowers who got advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service had been treated unfairly by their lender and could have grounds for an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, says the national charity.
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2 Jul 2013
New figures published today show that one in five families in the UK can’t afford to feed their children. The research has been published jointly by Fareshare, the Trussell Trust and Tescos.
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