Publications

Citizens Advice Scotland has responded to Ofcom's proposed plan of work for 2023/24. 

Citizens Advice Scotland is launching the Mental Health and Money Good Practice Creditor Guidance.  We've prepared this Briefing Note to support the launch.

We are actively encouraging creditors, both public and private to adopt our Principles. These set out the minimum standards someone experiencing mental health and debt can expect from their creditor when seeking support. Our guidance provides practical examples to firms and public bodies on how to achieve these minimum standards.

Debt is often the cause and consequence of poor mental health and wellbeing. This intrinsic link between debt and mental health is well known with it estimated that 1 in 2 people in problem debt also have a mental health issue.

Managing these issues can prove extremely difficult and people can often find themselves in vicious cycles where money problems impact upon their mental health and poor mental health worsens their financial situation.

Our Citizens Advice Network routinely supports people in these situations and with the rising cost of living crisis now being felt by our debt clients and beyond, we have seen countless examples of people with mental health and money issues reaching out to creditors seeking support, only to find barriers in their way such as inaccessible processes, online only options and a lack of understanding around their mental health.

These instances highlight the vast amount of missed opportunities to disrupt that vicious cycle. We believe that creditors, both private firms and public services can do more in breaking this link.

To do this effectively, it is crucial that creditors have the tools to support people struggling with mental health issues. Our Good Practice Guidance seeks to do just that by providing tangible steps that creditors can take to make them more accessible for those dealing with mental health and money problems.

By adopting our Principles, creditors can break this vicious cycle and care for their customers at a time when support for people’s mental health and money is needed now more than ever.

The report is compiled from a snapshot of Scottish CAB clients with complex or multiple debt issues; 2,987 of these clients had relevant data recorded. Complex debt refers to cases where there are multiple creditors or a single liability where the issue requires intricate legal or administrative work, for example responding to court action. The data was collected between April 2021 and March 2022 with the previous annual period used as a comparator.

Statistical briefing on advice given and client demographics including comparison to SIMD data.

The full report, which includes detailed statistics, an overview of activities and case studies, can downloaded below.

If you would like to access previous reports please contact the project team. 

This short leaflet introduces the Armed Services Advice Project, provides information about who the service is for and what kinds of problems we can help with, and how to get in touch with us.

The last few years have been extraordinarily tough. The pandemic left 1.8 million people in Scotland financially worse off, and even before the most recent increase in the energy price cap one in three people found their bills unaffordable. Now people are faced with a perfect storm of soaring prices and flat or falling incomes, which risks sweeping tens of thousands of people across the country into poverty, problem debt, and destitution.

Those relying on the social security system are particularly vulnerable to poverty. Just over 447,500 people across Scotland are on UC – equivalent to more than one in ten working age adults in Scotland and almost double the number before the pandemic. Getting social security right is vital to help these people weather the storm.

Recent data from across the Citizens Advice network in Scotland shows the hardship people are facing every day:

• Advice need for food banks has grown by almost a third (31%) since September 2021.
• Advice need for other charitable support, including fuel bank referrals, saw a sharp increase of 23% between September 2021 and December 2021, likely reflecting the additional pressure of winter heating bills.
• Advice on UC sanctions has grown by 53% over 2021-22.
• Advice on UC Budgeting Advances has risen by 25% over 2021-22.
• Advice on UC Overpayments nearly doubled from the average across 2020/21 to Q4 of 2021/22.

Behind each of these statistics are real people. In this report we highlight four real Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) client stories which show the incredible difficulties many people on UC are facing daily. Their names have been changed to protect their anonymity, but their stories demonstrate the reality of the cost of living crisis and the need for further support.