Publications

Welcome to the Spring 2023 edition of Voice Magazine. 

In this issue:

• one bureau's response to the cost of living crisis
• we profile two student volunteers
• a look at the PASS service 
• we hear from Tom Arthur MSP.

Read it online or download a PDF.

We have responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on how the mobility component of the new Adult Disability Payment is working.

On 14 March 2023, Citizens Advice Scotland's Strong Communities Team gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament Equality Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee's session on Access to Justice. This supporting evidence was submitted in writing afterwards.

The need for emergency food aid continues to be a prominent issue throughout Scotland with demand for food banks on the rise in post-Covid recovery and the cost-of-living crisis. The purpose of the Shopping Card Pilot was to investigate alternative methods of reducing food insecurity and providing immediate financial need. The pilot intended to provide households with greater dignity and choice alongside provision of money advice as a way to provide long term support. 

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.