Citizens Advice Services in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland

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Citizens Advice in the UK

The Citizens Advice service (www.citizensadvice.org.uk) is probably one of the best known resources for the average person living in the UK. They offer a free, impartial service which helps people with legal and financial problems for anyone who cannot or does not want to see a lawyer or other professional. Alternatively, the Citizens Advice can advise people when it is in their best interests to consult a lawyer.

In addition to this face to face public service, the Citizen's Advice also have some influence over public policy by campaigning directly to the government for changes to laws. Given the wealth of knowledge and statistics they are able to gather from their dealing with the public, the Citizen's Advice is in the privileged position of knowing what the public need and want.

Citizens Advice England Wales Logo

In England and Wales there are almost 400 Citizen's Advice Bureaux (CAB) and they are all registered as charities. Each of these bureaux are members of the Citizen's Advice which acts as the umbrella organisation. The Citizen's Advice regulates the bureaux and provides the necessary training and information needed for them to carry out their role.

In Scotland (www.cas.org.uk) the Citizen's Advice is made up of two bodies - the Citizen's Advice Scotland and the Citizen's Advice Bureaux. Essentially they run in the same way as the England/Wales organisation and offer over 200 locations where advice can be sought.

Citizen's Advice Scotland and Citizen's Advice England/Wales have joined together to create Advisement which is the online advice service. Each organisation shares information and knowledge to learn from each other.

The Citizen's Advice Northern Ireland also has close links with the Scottish and England/Wales organisations. There are close to 30 CAB offices in Northern Ireland all offering advice on legal and financial matters. In Northern Ireland the main area of focus tends to be social security and poverty issues.

The three Citizen's Advice services constitute the largest advice service offered in all of Europe and have offered the service for a total of 60 years. The Citizen's Advice also exists in a number of other countries such as New Zealand, Poland, Romania and Slovenia, among others.

The Citizen's Advice service is run by a team of paid staff and volunteers, who are fully trained to offer the best possible advice to anyone who has a problem. Despite the huge numbers of staff and the many offices open across the country it can still take time to make an appointment - although emergency slots are often available.

Services are offered either face to face, via the telephone or email. There is also an online self help website which will deal with many of the common issues people tend to ask about. The CAB advisers can even write letters, fill in forms and perform other functions on behalf of their clients. In some cases they may even go to court or tribunals for those in need.

The Citizen's Advice are able to offer help for anyone who wants to claim compensation for a range of problems including unfair dismissal, personal injury, discrimination, financial mis-selling and more. In the first instance they will be able to advise if there is a case to be heard and what the next steps will be. They can also advise on the law in regard to these issues and what the possible outcome could be.

One recent event which has seen Citizen's Advice offering advice to the public has been the PPI mis-selling issue. Their Chief Executive Gillian Guy stated at the time that the public did not need to approach claims management companies to make their claim and that the Citizen's Advice had information online which would help people to do this themselves.

Other popular articles related to this one include: Citizens Advice UK, Solicitors Regulation Authority, Motor Insurers Bureau, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, Employment Tribunal Service, NHSLA, and . Please let us know if you find any errors.

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