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Publications

  1. Scottish Affairs Committee
    Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    June 2013

    The UK Government’s changes to Housing Benefit have had a significant impact on claimants in Scotland. In this briefing, we have concentrated on the developing impact of the ‘bedroom tax’.

  2. Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    May 2013

    Citizens advice bureaux, and a range of other community organisations, have reported a significant rise in the number of service users who are either struggling to afford adequate food or who are experiencing a crisis where they cannot afford food at all. A range of factors are causing this trend, including falling incomes, a rise in food prices, and benefit cuts. This represents a worsening of a situation where many families were already struggling to afford adequate food. The establishment of the new food body in Scotland represents a timely opportunity to address many of the wider food-related issues that particularly affect Scotland, including food poverty, poor diet, obesity and ill health.

     

  3. Submission to the Work and Pensions Select Committee
    Beth Reid
    Publication date:
    May 2013

    The Work and Pensions Select Committee at the House of COmmons is holding an inquiry into the effectiveness of Jobcentre Plus, particularly in the context of current welfare reforms.

  4. Beth Reid
    Publication date:
    May 2013

    CAS responds to the HMRC's consultation on supporting customers who need additional help.  We focus on our experience of supporting clients with tax credits issues.

  5. Submission to the Public Administration Select Committee inquiry
    Beth Reid
    Publication date:
    May 2013

    Citizens Advice Bureaux experience very significant difficulties resolving problems with benefits and tax credits on behalf of clients.  A complaints mechanism is only as good as the system it supports.  Where there is a lack of faith in the system itself, it is likely there will also be a lack of faith in the complaints procedure.

  6. Digital exclusion amongst Scotland's CAB clients
    Sarah Beattie-Smith
    Publication date:
    May 2013

    In November 2012, the UK Government launched its Government Digital Strategy .  This paper sets out how the Government will transform the way it delivers services to citizens, including moving services online – a change in ethos to “digital by default”. The strategy includes an expectation that 80% of benefits applications will be completed online by 2017 .  This new strategy comes at the same time as the Government’s changes to the welfare system which, coupled with at least £18 billion of cuts to the UK welfare budget, will cause significant upheaval for citizens currently in receipt of benefits.

  7. Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    April 2013

    105,000 households in Scotland will lose £53 million in housing support due to changes coming into force in April 2013. This is the result of new size criteria for social housing – dubbed the ‘bedroom tax’ – which will see working age tenants penalised an average of £11 per week for under occupying their homes. An estimated 83,000 households affected by the change contain at least one disabled adult.

  8. The impact of benefit reforms, changes and cuts on people and families in Scotland
    Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    March 2013

    In October 2011, Citizens Advice Scotland published a briefing entitled The Impact of  the Welfare Reform Bill on Scotland’s people and services. The briefing showed that  an estimated £2.5 billion would be taken out of the local economy in Scotland during  the lifetime of this Parliament and predicted what the impacts would be on people. 

  9. Consultation response
    Beth Reid
    Publication date:
    March 2013

    The Department for Work and Pensions is asking for ideas about how they can make jobsearch requirements work for in-work benefit claimants.  Read CAS' response here.

  10. What Scotland needs from an independent Scottish welfare system
    Beth Reid
    Publication date:
    March 2013

    The Scottish Government has set up an Expert Group to examine what a benefits system could look like in an indepedent Scotland.  The publication sets out what CAS believes are the core principles for a new social security system for Scotland.

  11. January cases
    Publication date:
    February 2013

    Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland help hundreds of thousands of people with over half a million new issues each year. Snapshot uses evidence on these issues to act as an early warning system for government, service providers, and private sector companies, of where policies and practices are failing or inefficient. These monthly briefings use very recent evidence and are an excellent way of spotting trends to social policy and tracing the impact of recent policy changes.

    This edition is based on the advice needs of clients who approached bureaux during January 2013.

    Thank you to all bureaux for their feedback, without which this type of publication would not be possible.

  12. Sarah Beattie-Smith
    Publication date:
    February 2013

    In November 2012, the UK Government launched its Government Digital Strategy . This paper sets out how the Government will transform the way it delivers services to citizens, including moving services online – a change in ethos to “digital by default”. Citizens Advice Scotland is concerned that a digital by default approach to welfare benefits could exclude some of the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society from accessing the very services they rely upon.

  13. Publication date:
    February 2013

    Based on the responses from bureau advisers to the recent Social Policy questionnaire, the Policy and Communications team have put together a forward work plan for 2013/14. This covers the issues that we plan to address over the coming year and the ways in which we plan to undertake this work.

  14. Publication date:
    January 2013

    In April 2012, changes to the number of working hours that couples must work to be eligible for Working Tax Credit affected thousands of families in Scotland. Around 11,770 families, with over 23,500 children, faced losing their Working Tax Credit payments (worth an average of £2,600 per year) if they could not increase their working hours to at least 24 hours per week. Case evidence from bureaux and other sources suggest that claimants have struggled to increase their working hours in the middle of a double dip recession. The outcome of this change is therefore likely to be that thousands of low income families in Scotland have lost millions of pounds of support.

  15. Citizens Advice Scotland briefing for MPs
    Publication date:
    January 2013

    Background

    The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill was announced following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in December. It will introduce a cap of 1% for three years from 2013/14 on most working-age benefits and tax credits.  MPs debate the Bill on Monday 21st January 2013.

  16. Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    January 2013

    Evidence from bureaux shows that welfare changes are driving an increased demand for benefits advice across the country, with a knock-on effect on the ability of bureaux to be able to help their clients. As the welfare reform agenda gathers pace in 2013, we expect demand for benefit advice to increase further.

  17. Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    December 2012

    As welfare changes begin to affect people across the country, Citizens Advice Scotland is producing briefings outlining their impact on people across Scotland in our Voices from the Frontline series. This briefing looks at the changes to Local Housing Allowance which significantly affected 4,400 claimants aged 25 to 35 across Scotland earlier in 2012.

  18. Publication date:
    October 2012

    Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland help hundreds of thousands of people with over half a million new issues each year. Snapshot uses evidence on these issues to act as an early warning system for government, service providers, and private sector companies, of where policies and practices are failing or inefficient. These monthly briefings use very recent evidence and are an excellent way of spotting trends to social policy and tracing the impact of recent policy changes.

    This edition is based on the advice needs of over 15,000 clients who approached bureaux for advice in August 2012. These clients were better off by nearly £7.9m as a result of the advice that they recieved.

  19. Keith Dryburgh
    Publication date:
    October 2012

    As welfare changes begin to affect people across the country, Citizens Advice Scotland is producing briefings outlining their impact on people across Scotland in our Voices from the Frontline series. This briefing looks at the increasing number of sanctions that have been applied to jobseekers in the past two years and the effects that they have had on claimants.

  20. Consultation on changes required as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment
    Social Policy
    Publication date:
    October 2012

    The response of the Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux to the consultation on changes required as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment. 

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