Citizen Advice Bureau

General information

The Citizens Advice service offers information and advice through face-to-face, phone and email services, and online. Between them, Local Citizens Advice make advice available from over 3,500 locations in England and Wales including high streets, community centres, doctors' surgeries, courts and prisons.

Every year the service helps over 2 million people with more than 7 million problems relating to issues including debt, benefits, employment, housing and immigration. Advisers help clients to fill our forms, write letters, negotiate with creditors, and can even represent them at court or tribunal.
We're not just here for times of crisis - we also use clients' stories anonymously to campaign for policy changes that benefit the population as a whole.

The sheer number of clients we see each year means that if there is a recurring injustice out there, it is inevitably being played out in our interview rooms and recorded on our database of client evidence. This database is analysed by the national policy team, who are then able to bring problem areas to the attention of those who are - often inadvertently - causing them.