Article by Kieron Higgins, CAS head of Communications, first published in The Herald on 18 May 2024.

This year Citizens Advice celebrates its 85th birthday. For five years I’ve had the privilege to help tell the stories of Citizens Advice in Scotland. As I prepare to move on to a new role, I’ve been reflecting on the stories that will stay with me.

A year into my time at CAS came the pandemic, and the most extraordinary response from the network. As Covid spread through our country and we had to stay apart, CABs and the Extra Help Unit (EHU) came together to get people the advice they needed. They transitioned to remote working with a speed and skill that would put much larger and better funded organisations to shame, and that was down to the people involved. The network is a volunteer led service, people helping their neighbours. Each CAB is a local charity with its own trustees and funding arrangements, reflecting the communities they serve and doing so with an empathy and kindness that we can all learn from.  

That kindness is in response to stories that make you cover your mouth in horror. The disabled women forced between eating and charging her medical equipment. The working family buying cloth nappies to keep costs down but worried about the cost of turning on the washing machine. The pensioner showering twice a week at the leisure centre because it was cheaper than running their own hot water.

Many of those stories have happy endings. In my five years here, CABs have helped 630,749 people with advice and unlocked £725 million in the process. That money puts food on tables, keeps the lights on and helps our local economies.

Beyond those numbers are stories of changed lives, like the family able to send the kids to school because their local CAB facilitated access to school uniforms. Some of the changes seem small but mean the world, such as the parents finally having enough money to buy their child an ice cream as well as dinner that night. 

Article by CAS CEO Derek Mitchell, first published in The Herald on 04 May 2024.

In this column Citizens Advice Scotland spokespeople often outline the exhausting demand our network is under.

Amid the fall out of the pandemic and still in the midst of a cost of living crisis, people need advice more than ever. More people are seeking advice, and they are often needing help with increasingly complex cases and turning up in a state of crisis.

Bluntly, CABs need more funding. That funding needs to be secure, flexible and long term.

That would have absolutely disastrous consequences for a service already struggling to keep pace with demand.

It would also have a chilling effect on our ability to recruit and retain volunteer advisors, and potentially restrict people’s access to advice. Volunteer Scotland say that the percentage of adults in Scotland volunteering for an organisation or community group has dropped from 26% in 2019 to 22% in 2022, and CABs have faced challenges with volunteer recruitment and retention since the pandemic.

It is vitally important that people understand that the inadvertent impact of these fees wouldn’t be restricting people’s access to immigration advice in a CAB, it would be about restricting access to advice in a CAB entirely.

People rarely seek advice on just one issue – life isn’t that black and white. That’s why the CAB service is a generalist wraparound one, so when someone comes in with a problem in one area, an advisor can help them through all their issues rather than signposting them elsewhere.

A scenario where we face huge charges to register our advisors to give immigration advice risks our ability to deliver that wraparound service. Last year 12,743 pieces of immigration-related advice were given to 4,406 people by CABs in Scotland. These clients didn’t just get immigration advice – they got help with issues like housing, employment and energy as well. By restricting our ability to help these clients with immigration issues, it restricts our ability to help with everything.

And if you restrict our ability to help people with everything, they will fall through the cracks. Even if you don’t subscribe to our view that everyone deserves access to free advice to understand their rights regardless of their circumstances or background, you have to acknowledge the risk people not knowing their rights creates, and the potential costs it pushes onto the state in other ways.

Press release published on 11th March 2024.

The cost-of-living crisis has seen thousands of people forced into debt, or seen their existing debt get worse, new analysis from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has revealed.

CAS Financial Health spokesperson Jemiel Benison said:

“This has been the worst cost-of-living crisis in memory, and the legacy of it is now clear – hundreds of thousands of people with new debt issues, whether that is entering debt for the first time or seeing their existing debt get worse.

“After years of higher costs for food, energy and housing it is completely understandable that people find themselves behind on bills. Anyone can find themselves in debt when their income stays the same but the costs of everything else just goes up and up.

“We want people who are stressed about their debts to seek advice and support from the Citizens Advice network. You don’t need to go to a CAB to get advice, instead you can check our online advice pages or use our interactive self-help tools.

“Our network gets real results for people – last year people who saw a gain having sought advice were more than £3,700 better off. Our advice is impartial, confidential and crucially free – we don’t charge for our advice, and we never will.”

Article by Myles Fitt, CAS Strategic Lead for Financial Health, first published in the Herald on 24 February 2024.

There’s a clear link between how much money you have and the state of your mental health. Indeed, research shows that 85% people in Scotland who have experienced debt say it has harmed their mental wellbeing.

But I don’t really need to quote data about this, do I? You know it yourself. When you’ve got a bit of extra money in your pocket - maybe after a raise at work or a wee windfall on the national lottery - you feel good. And when you’re struggling, the opposite is the case. Particularly if you’ve been forced into debt.

But of course this ostrich strategy is the worst thing you can do. Because left un-tackled, debt just breeds more debt. The interest piles on and soon your debt is spiralling out of control. And that’s when the mental health problems really start.

So this week we launched our spring campaign, ‘Stressed about Debt?’ which aims to persuade those who are in that position that they’re not alone, that they have nothing to feel ashamed about and that free advice and support is available from the Citizens Advice network.

You can go to our 'Stressed about Debt?' campaign page or of course you can get face-to-face advice from your local CAB.

Now, if you’re in debt yourself I suspect you’re wondering: ‘But can they actually help me?’ The answer is Yes. Our advisers are experts at this and get results every day. We can negotiate with your creditors to put a hold on debt collection to allow more time and space to agree an affordable repayment plan. In some circumstances we can get some or all of your debt written off – last year in Scotland we helped people write off a total of over £11 million worth of debt. And we can help maximise your income, e.g. through benefits and grants you’re entitled to but perhaps didn’t know about.

Press release as part of "Stressed About Debt" campaign 2024.

A new CAS campaign is encouraging people to seek advice if they are worried about their debts, as research shows over 660,000 people cite debt as impacting their mental health.

Analysis of polling from research company YouGov suggests around 665,148 of people in Scotland have seen their mental health and wellbeing affected by debt.

The “Stressed about Debt?” campaign aims to encourage people who are worried about their bills or stressed about debt to seek advice from the Citizens Advice network.

Scottish Government Housing Minister Paul McLennan MSP said:

“I welcome this important and timely campaign from Citizens Advice Scotland. Advice services play a critical role in helping people to navigate the current cost crisis and to access the support and information they need. The cost-of-living crisis is putting a huge strain on households which is why the Scottish Government is doing all it can to deliver support.

“This year we will invest over £12.5 million in a range of advice services providing free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice. This includes more than £4.45 million to Citizens Advice Scotland and the network of Bureaux for the Money Talk Team, which offers free confidential and holistic advice.  Access to free, confidential and impartial advice through the CAB network, either online or in person, can make a massive difference for people.”

Alex Cumming, Executive Director of Operations at SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health), said:

“Poor mental health can be a factor in building up debt, and debt can result in mental health problems, including stress and anxiety. Debt and mental health problems often form a vicious circle, and it’s important to seek help for both.

“At SAMH, we hear time and again from the people we support, including those who contact our information service, that they are experiencing issues with money at the same time as needing help with their mental health.

“We welcome Citizens Advice Scotland’s campaign and encourage anyone who is stressed about debt to take that first step towards getting the support they need.”

by Myles Fitt, CAS Strategic Lead for Financial Health, first published in the Herald on 16 September 2023.

If I asked you what you think is the main type of debt that we see in the Scottish CAB network, I suspect you would say credit cards or bank overdraft or even energy bill debt. In fact, the most common type of debt we see is that related to unpaid Council Tax.  

If we’re to consider ways of reducing the problem, we need to understand it. Put simply, what is it about Council Tax that people struggle with to the extent that it becomes a problem debt?    

Our research has found four key factors: low incomes, prioritisation of other essential daily living costs, lack of awareness of Councils’ harsh debt collection practices, and some missed opportunities by Councils to enable repayment before the debt is enforced.  

Low incomes, exacerbated by the rising cost of living, are of course the root of the problem. When people are struggling they prioritise bills like food, energy and housing – the core costs of daily living – and Council Tax falls down the list.  

This is because people don’t always see the immediate tangible consequences of not paying their Council Tax - the bins still get emptied and streetlights stay on – in the way that they do if they can’t buy food or if their energy bills are left unpaid.  

But what they often don’t realise is that the debt collection process for Council Tax is quicker and harsher than that for debt like credit cards. Councils can, for example, freeze your bank account to recover the arrears owed, something which of course can push you over the line from struggling into total crisis.