Without volunteers, many charities simply wouldn’t exist

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Without volunteers, many charities simply wouldn’t exist

By Allana Mullen, Volunteer Support Manager at Citizens Advice Scotland

Volunteers’ Week is a time to celebrate the incredible people who give their time to support others.  

As Volunteer Support Manager at Citizens Advice Scotland, I’m proud to support the Citizen Advice Network of 58 CABs and more than 1,700 volunteers.  

After 22 years in the voluntary sector, I’m still inspired by the generosity, dedication, and impact of volunteering across Scotland. What kind of world would we live in without the volunteers that support people experiencing most harm across our communities in Scotland?

Volunteers are at the heart of the Network and quite simply, without them, the Citizens Advice service would not exist in the way it does today. This Volunteers’ Week I want to recognise and celebrate all volunteers and all volunteer roles.

For the thousands of people who visit a CAB every day, their first point of contact will be with a volunteer. They’re likely to be welcomed by a volunteer receptionist or administrator and then supported by a triage volunteer or adviser that will provide free, confidential and impartial advice.  

CABs also have social policy volunteers who support campaigns and advocacy initiatives relevant to their bureau. This role is vital in helping to influence change, tackle the root causes of the issues people face, and strengthen people’s rights.  

Other volunteers support both the bureau and the people within it. Bureau tutors help volunteers and staff stay up-to-date with training and changes in advice delivery. Volunteer mentors guide advisers through their training and support them with their first 30 cases. Case checkers help ensure clients receive accurate, consistent and high-quality advice. Social media and marketing volunteers raise awareness of the bureau, highlight its impact, and strengthen engagement within the local community.  

Finally, our board of trustees, a dedicated group of volunteers who support the management and leadership of CABs by providing guidance on strategic planning, financial sustainability, legal responsibilities, and much more.

That’s ten different known roles delivered by volunteers, and I’m sure there are a few more informal or bureau specific roles too. Ten vital volunteer roles supporting the day-to-day delivery of a bureau.

Collectively, these roles and individual volunteers make a life changing difference to people’s lives and that contribution never goes unnoticed. In 2024-25 the Citizens Advice network in Scotland helped 196,540 people, dealt with over 702,568 advice issues, and put over £169.4 million back in people’s pockets.

Volunteers truly are amazing. And while we’re shining a spotlight on this particular week, we appreciate these people every single day. Without them, many organisations and services simply wouldn’t exist.

Enough is enough - Scotland demands better

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Enough is enough - Scotland demands better

by Emma Jackson, head of CAS Social Justice team.

This article was first published in The Herald on 18 October 2025.

Better jobs. Better investment in life's essentials. Better social security. Scotland needs change. And we need it now.  

In Citizens Advice Bureaux across Scotland, our advisers witness daily the depths of harm that hundreds of thousands of us are forced to endure. Last year alone, our network provided life changing advice to almost 200,000 people facing impossible circumstances.  

Families cut off from life's essentials, frightened of what the future will bring.  People who are hungry, or are without a home, or sacrificing meals, dreading winter due to heating costs, or struggling to get by on wages that don’t cover household costs.  

Enough. After more than a decade of austerity and perma-crisis too many of us are feeling tired, angry, isolated, and disillusioned. We’re not prepared to continue to accept this.  

In a just and compassionate society, all of us should have a warm, safe place to call home. A decent income that at least covers the essentials. Buses and trains that get us where we need to go. Those of us who are elderly, ill or disabled getting the right support and care to live with dignity and respect.   

That’s why the Citizens Advice network is proud to be joining civic society organisations, charities, trade unions and faith groups to demand better. We’ll put our feet on the street along with thousands of people on Saturday 25th to march in Edinburgh and demand that UK and Scottish politicians make the changes we need for a society where all of us can thrive.  

Our network will be marching for Andy and people like him. Over the last seven years, Andy’s faced repeated problems with his rents, threatened homelessness, and the repair and maintenance of his social housing. The CAB has been his safety net at each point of crisis, but the failure of the system means that these crises keep happening – and will keep happening unless there’s real change.  

We're also marching for charities across Scotland - our volunteers and advisers in every corner of the nation work in difficult circumstances supporting people facing even worse. People are coming to Bureaux with ever more challenging circumstances, when they have nowhere left to turn. It is not right that this level of need is falling to charities - this is state failure and change needs to happen. 

Change for the better happens when people stand together and demand it. The issues that our communities are being forced to endure have not happened by accident. These can be repaired and rebuilt. Something better is possible. 

Our politicians can make the right decisions today to build a better future for all of us. Better jobs for everyone who needs one, with fair conditions and wages that pay the bills. Better investment for life’s essentials, like affordable homes, good public transport, a thriving natural environment and strong public services. Better social security so that all of us have a foundation for the future. 

This is the change that Scotland needs.   

If you agree, why not join us at the march and rally in Edinburgh next Saturday to use your voice to say Scotland demands better? https://www.scotland-demands-better.com

Eastenders star's fate shows we are all vulnerable

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Eastenders star's fate shows we are all vulnerable

Article by Derek Mitchell, CAS CEO. First published in The Herald on 28 December 2025.

A few weeks ago the actress Cheryl Fergison made headlines as she spoke about her time since leaving her high-profile job in Eastenders.

In the 12 years since playing Heather Trott, her acting career had stalled. She spoke openly about her challenges since, including with her health, debt and depression. She also discussed her experiences that led her use a foodbank for the first time.

She didn’t have to talk about this, but she wanted to use her experience to show that anyone can have a run of bad luck. She also highlighted the vital help that’s available and why we need to end the awful stigma often placed on people seeking help. I think that was terrifically brave. 

Talking about needing support from a foodbank, she said: "I sat there and cried and cried. It was shameful. How could I have been on EastEnders, earning that much money and now I am here? It was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I found it so difficult to be that vulnerable. But I didn't have any money to do a weekly shop. I was trying to pay too many debts."

The second half of that paragraph will be something that many people can identify with. But the first half is fascinating too. How can it be that someone who was a major – and well-paid - star in one of the UK’s most popular TV shows later struggled to put food on the table? 

The answer is quite simple. It’s called life. When you’ve worked for the Citizens Advice network for a while you come to understand this. We see it again and again coming through our doors.

You can be rolling along fine – great job, good house, nice car, holidays abroad. Then maybe you get sick. Or someone you love gets sick. Or you suddenly lose your job. Maybe there’s a pandemic. Or just a streak of bad luck. A bad investment, your car breaks down, the house gets flooded, you fall victim to a scam or develop a gambling addiction.  

Things happen. Life isn’t simple, or predictable. You can try to avoid these calamities, but they do happen. And if you talk to the people who have experienced them, you’ll find they have one thing in common: like you – they never thought it could happen to them.  

And unfortunately, many of our systems are broken and the support needed to help people during difficult periods in their lives, simply isn’t there.

I’m not trying to scare you. In fact, I’m trying to reassure you. Because the other thing that stood out from Cheryl Fergison’s interview was that her journey to the foodbank – and some stability in her life again - started with a visit to her local Citizens Advice Bureau. The advisers there listened, empathised and physically took her to the foodbank. Today, she’s back working and on the path to a brighter future.

So, the message is clear. Our CAB network is here to help anyone who needs support at any point in their lives. There’s no judgement from us, only support when you need it. And with that, Happy new year.

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Derek Mitchell is chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland.

If you're feeling secure in your job you're one of the lucky ones

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If you're feeling secure in your job you're one of the lucky ones

Article by Emma Jackson, head of the CAS social justice team, first published in The Herald on 14 September 2024.

This week we published worrying figures showing a steep rise in the numbers of people viewing our advice webpage on dismissal from work.  

Over the summer - June, July and August - the number increased by 55% compared to the same period last year. A significant spike. 

Our website is one of the key channels which people can choose to access our advice, so monitoring views to each page provides a useful guide to emerging trends. It indicates concerns that are just below crisis level, where people are not quite worried enough to make an appointment with us, but worried enough to make them seek general advice.  

This increase should act as a flashing red light warning that many workers in Scotland are facing instability in their employment, especially given that so many are already struggling to pay their household bills and grappling with insufficient income.  

The financial impact of losing your job is acute. But our advisers see first-hand people who have faced this, and they say that it’s the emotional aspect that’s often most distressing. Facing dismissal causes real stress and anxiety, not just to you but to your whole household, impacting on physical and mental well-being. It can affect you sense of identify and self-worth, robbing people of their confidence. 

Shaun, a Glasgow-based lorry driver told us:

I’m 58. I don’t have any other skills so if I lose this job I really think I might not get another one. I’ve been unemployed in the past and I hate it. I just hate it. Having to claim benefits, which is never enough to pay the bills. But it’s also the sense of being useless. My kids seeing me just sitting in the house all day when other Dads are out working. The thought of going back to that just terrifies me.

The situation can be even worse when you feel you’re being unfairly treated.  

Linda is a hairdresser in the north-east: 

It’s quite clear that they want to get rid of me. I’ve tried to get on with my line manager but she’s just really hard on me and I think she wants me out. It’s so upsetting. I’m not sleeping and I’m a nervous wreck at work. I’m coming to you so I know my rights and you’ve given me good advice and that’s great, but even with that it’s a rubbish situation to be in.

It’s essential that anyone facing dismissal can access their rights and also that employers deliver on their responsibilities. This is where the 59 CABs across Scotland are essential. 

Free, impartial and confidential support is available online now, or by making a face-to-face appointment at your local CAB.

But we also urge any employers reading this to think about their workers’ emotional well-being. If the need to let staff go becomes essential, be straight with them. A good employer will talk to their workforce about what’s on the horizon at the earliest opportunity, and listen to their concerns. A good employer will also know their workers’ rights and will respect them. The need to cut staff can arise for a multitude of different reasons. But following due process and acting with care and compassion matters. And benefits everyone.  

You shouldn't have to pay for the right to work in a fair workplace

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You shouldn't have to pay for the right to work in a fair workplace

Article by Hyo Eun Shin of the CAS Strong Communities team, first published in The Herald on 31 August 2024.

“Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’”

The world of work has moved on from the days when Dolly Parton’s song ‘9 to 5’, an upbeat critique of Corporate America, first became a hit. Since then, there have been many hard-won improvements in workers’ rights in the UK, such as the introduction of a national minimum wage and legal protections against discrimination in the workplace.

But Dolly’s lyrics capture something many will still recognise today: the need to make a living, and the inherent power imbalance that exists between workers and those they work for.  

The Citizens Advice network in Scotland sees first-hand what that means for people who have been treated unfairly at work. Last year, work-related advice pages on our public advice site were viewed almost 135,000 times. In the same period, advisers in local Citizens Advice Bureaux supported thousands of people across the country with over 32,000 pieces of advice tailored to their individual needs and situation to help address problems at work.  

Early advice and resolution of workplace disputes will usually be beneficial for both workers and employers - clarifying everyone’s rights and responsibilities can reduce stress and the amount of time and money spent. But sometimes workers will need to turn to an Employment Tribunal to challenge injustices at work. This is central to our employment rights - because rights are worthless if they can’t be enforced. 

If you’ve been unfairly dismissed or discriminated against at work, had your wages withheld or been denied rest breaks, accessing an Employment Tribunal should not come at a cost.  

In 2013, the UK Government introduced fees for Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals. This coincided with a significant fall in cases brought to Tribunals and was found to have been unlawful and was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2017. However, prior to the recent General Election, the UK government at the time proposed to re-introduce fees to the Employment Tribunal system.  

This clearly isn’t right. Tribunal fees would make it even harder for workers to access justice and protect themselves against unlawful practices. People are already facing multiple hurdles to pursuing a claim: legal aid solicitors are scarce in large areas of Scotland, and while Trade Unions might be able to help, many people can’t find solicitors with employment law expertise. So while employers tend to be represented by legal professionals, workers often end up facing their employer on their own – disadvantaging them from the outset.

Fear of retribution or victimisation, health issues, financial pressures and stress can leave people with no option but to give up pursuing justice. This is often worse for those whose employment rights are more likely at risk, such as disabled people, those in insecure or precarious work, migrant workers and pregnant women.  

If Scotland is to be a fair and just place to live and work, we can’t afford a system where Tribunal fees put workplace justice further out of people’s reach, so we strongly opposed these proposals. The new government’s manifesto promise of ‘delivering a new deal for working people’ we hope will consign these fees to the past once and for all. 

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