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Citizen Advice Scotland responded to the Scottish Government Rural Economy and Connectivity's call for evidence - Transport (Scotland) Bill

Hard-Wired Problems: Delivering effective support to households with electric heating provides insight into the nature and reach of services that provide support to households that rely on electric heating, and explores consumers’ experiences of using these services and how services could be better supported.

Services that are essential for life, such as water and sewerage, should be affordable for all consumers.  CAS' latest research report takes a closer look at characteristics that may indicate whether or not a household will struggle to pay for water and sewerage charges. It also provides an analysis of various proxies that could be used to determine affordability, and at how additional financial support could be targeted towards households that need it most.

The report found that:

• Income is the most accurate indicator of whether or not a household is likely to find water and sewerage charges affordable.
• 12% of households in Scotland spend more than 3% of their weekly income on their water and sewerage charges although not all receive additional financial support through available affordability mechanisms.
• The current proxy used to provide financial relief, based on households being in receipt of Council Tax Reduction, is the most effective one that exists however, difficulties around more closely linking systems and data sets means that some households in need of additional support do not receive it. 
• In the longer term, further research is necessary to identify how support could be more effectively targeted to all households that may struggle to pay.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has provided feedback on the Scottish Government’s ‘Investing in and paying for your water services from 2021’ consultation.

CAS sent a briefing to MSPs ahead of the 'Building a Social Security System Together: Co-designing the Social Security Charter' debate, highlighting suggestions for the Charter from CAB clients and advisers and encouraging an approach of co-production with people who have direct experience of using the current social security system.

CAS supported the devolution of employment programmes, as it represents the opportunity to provide schemes that more effectively support long-term unemployed people into work, based on the positive employability programmes already existing in Scotland.

Our series of briefings, 'Voices from the Frontline', demonstrates the impact of changes to the UK social security system on people in Scotland. This latest briefing considers the impact of deductions from Universal Credit payments.

Citizens Advice Scotland received 232 responses to the Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS) client feedback survey between 1st April 2018 and 31st March 2019.  Client satisfaction is high with 96% of respondents stating that they were either very satisfied (86%) or satisfied (10%) with the service.

Some people can only access the internet through their smartphone. When CAS surveyed clients, we found that this was the case for more than 1 in 10 respondents - 20% of all respondents who said they used the internet at all.

 This report looks in more detail at these consumers, analysing their characteristics and assessing their digital access and skills.