Background information on the CAB Service
Citizens Advice Service Strategy 2008-2011
The Citizens Advice service has a central role in tackling injustice, reducing poverty and social exclusion, and enabling people to realise their full potential. Our advice services provide the impetus for millions to understand and realise their rights while, through pressing for change in social policy, we help many more. Our work is also a powerful catalyst to help social and economic regeneration across communities.
This strategy strengthens and increases our impact as a key agent of social improvement. It will enable us to improve our capacity to deliver quality advice, available when people need it, free, confidential and impartial, and to use client evidence to strengthen our policy influencing role. It shows how we will deliver on both these commitments by exploring new ways to operate, develop and fund our service.
We face some tough challenges but there are many opportunities to help more people, particularly those in greatest need, more effectively across the whole Citizens Advice service.
David Harker, Chief Executive
Hilary Watkins, Chair
The Citizens Advice service is 70 years old. Citizens Advice Bureaux started life as an emergency war service. World War II was declared on 3 September 1939 and the first 200 bureaux opened their doors the very next day. We are now the UK’s largest advice provider, with nearly half of the population using our service at some point in their lives. We provide face-to-face services in over 3,200 locations including the high street, community centres, health settings, courts and prisons. Of the 27,000 people who work across the Citizens Advice service, 21,000 of them are volunteers and 6,000 are paid staff. What they all share in common is being highly trained and passionate about getting justice for their clients.
Our aims and principles
The Citizens Advice service provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. Its aims are to provide the advice people need for the problems they face and to exercise influence on the development of the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.
What we do
The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their problems. As the UK’s largest advice provider we are equipped to deal with any issue, from anyone, spanning debt and employment to housing and immigration plus everything in between. In fact nearly half the population has used our service at some point in their life. In the last year alone, the Citizens Advice service helped 1.9 million people to solve 6 million problems. These included 1.9 million debt problems, 1.7 million problems with benefits and tax credits, and 0.6 million employment problems. CAB advisers can write letters and make phone calls to service providers on their clients' behalf. They can help people prioritise debts and negotiate with creditors. They can also refer clients to specialist case workers, who are able to represent people at court and tribunals.
But we’re not just here for times of crisis – we also use our clients’ stories anonymously to campaign for policy changes that benefit millions, often without them even realising. This involves publishing evidence reports, responding to consultations, giving evidence to select committees and providing parliamentary briefings for MPs and Welsh Assembly Members.
By campaigning for change we improve the lives of everyone, including those who have never used a CAB.
Working with government, companies, regulators, trade associations and consumer groups, our policy teams have secured many changes this year, including:
- Government focus on the take-up of benefits by low income households.
- Changes in the rules on earnings for people on employment and support allowance (ESA).
- Changes to support for mortgage interest (SMI) which will make it a more effective safety net against repossession for mortgage arrears.
- Regulation of sale and rent back agreements.
- A joint protocol with the Local Government Association (LGA) on best practice in collection and enforcement of council tax arrears.
- The introduction of state-led enforcement for Employment Tribunal awards.
- Increases to Warm Front grants to cover the full cost of energy efficiency measures.
- Provision in the Equality Bill against multiple discrimination.
- Government regulation to allow tenants two months to find a new home if their landlord is repossessed for mortgage arrears.
- Government regulation of letting agents.
How we’re structured behind the scenes
There are 416 Citizens Advice Bureaux across England and Wales, all of which are independent registered charities. Citizens Advice itself is also an independent registered charity, as well as being the membership organisation for bureaux. Together we make up the Citizens Advice service. Through the training, information systems and support it provides, Citizens Advice equips bureaux to deliver the highest quality advice to their local residents. In turn, client evidence submitted by bureaux alerts Citizens Advice to widespread problems that require action at a national level.
How we’re funded
The income of Citizens Advice Bureaux totalled £153 million in 2008/09.
Bureaux receive money from local authorities (the principle source of funding), the Legal Services Commission, Lottery funds, Primary Care Trusts, charitable trusts, companies and individuals. The income of Citizens Advice totalled £56 million in 2008/09.
Citizens Advice is largely funded through government grants.
Citizens Advice service equality and diversity strategy 2008 - 2011 - FAIR
The FAIR strategy aims to:
- develop and deliver discrimination advice services, from first point of contact to resolution, in partnership with others to make equality and diversity part of all we do.
To achieve those aims, its three priorities for action are to:
- increase the availability and quality of discrimination advice and policy work
- diversify our trustee boards and management, and increase their knowledge of equality, diversity and human rights issues
- develop a common understanding of greatest need and ensure this informs service and policy planning and delivery
The FAIR strategy applies to the work of bureaux and Citizens Advice in England and Wales. From 2009 as part of our commitment to good practice we will publish an annual equality scheme explaining what each part of Citizens Advice will do to implement FAIR. We will report on progress each year.
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