Public

In this edition of the ‘Who Are You?’ series we take a look at those who came to CAB service points during November 2015.  Information was collected on almost 17,000 clients, which is an increase in reporting of 6% from our first client profile data collection in 2014.  In learning from the pilot phase of this work, a more accurate measure of comparison between the client profile and all clients seen in November has been developed.  This indicates that the profile captures approximately 74% of all clients seen in November 2015, an increase of 6% from the proportion seen in 2014.

As with all surveys of this type not all clients wished to answer all questions; it is also not always appropriate to ask for such information.  Because of this it is not possible to report on every category, but our analysis shows that comparison with the client profile data from 2014/15 is consistent and the data collected is robust enough to compare with the 2011 Census. 

Using data from the 2014 Client Profile survey, this second publication in the 'Who Are You? series looks at initial findings from an analysis of CAB clients by the type of advice provided to them.

This report provides a snapshot of the key issues that are affecting consumers in Scotland, examining both national and local trends in consumer issues.  This is based on data provided by Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland and data from the Citizens Advice consumer service and covers the period from April 2014 to May 2015.

The Consumer Futures Unit of Citizens Advice Scotland and Citizens Advice (England and Wales) have responsibilities to represent energy consumers in Great Britain in accordance with the 2007 Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act.

This paper is their joint response to the provisional decision on remedies in the Competition and Market Authority (CMA)’s energy market investigation.

The Citizens Advice Service is the most common external source of advice for employees who experience problems at work. In Scotland last year, clients brought over 50,625 new employment issues to their local CAB.

Overall, 2014/15 has been another impressive year for CAS. We have faced many challenges, but have responded by being more active, delivering more funding and infrastructure support to bureaux and raising our campaigning and media profile. Together with our member bureaux, we believe we make the vital difference as the last line of support for many thousands of people across Scotland in these immensely difficult times.

In 2014/15 the Citizens advice Service helped over 323,000 clients living in Scotland.

Clients gained over £124 million with support from the service.

After taking on the Consumer Futures team in April 2014 CAS has now strengthened its voice in supporting and assisting consumers across Scotland.

CAS has responded to the Social Security Advisory Committee's consultation on Decision Making and Mandatory Reconsideration. 

Online shopping in the UK is on the rise and with this comes a different set of consumer problems. One such problem is subscription traps. These are situations where a consumer is tricked into agreeing to a subscription through the advertising of a “free trial” or reduced price offer. If the consumer doesn’t cancel the trial within a set amount of time they automatically get transferred onto a costly subscription payment plan.