Outcomes of advice
Demonstrating the value of the Citizens Advice service
These documents demonstrate the outcomes of our advice work. They provide introductions to how our work helps clients, the government and society.
The first paper is a summary of the outcomes recorded against problems opened in 2010/11 Outcomes have been captured for more than 135,000 clients, this is the largest dataset of advice outcomes available in the UK, and its size allows us to draw confident conclusions about typical outcomes for our clients.
The following set of reports are short papers, each focussing upon a different issue faced by our clients. They discuss the key problems caused by the issue, the impacts of these problems, and the benefits that advice provision can supply.
We have focused initially on the greatest areas of our work; benefits and tax credit, debt, housing, and employment.
These documents are not static and will be updated as we continue to gather information around the outcomes of our work.
For more information on our outcomes work please see Understanding Citizens Advice approach to outcomes

The outcomes of CAB advice
During 2009/10, the Citizens Advice service helped 2.1 million people with 7.1 million problems but these statistics don’t show the whole picture. It tells us how many people we help but not what the result of our advice is.
So in January 2011, we took a snapshot of outcomes that had been recorded for benefits, debt and housing enquiries that were initially raised during 2009/10. The sample is made up of 181,390 recorded outcomes for 122,150 clients – 10 per cent of clients who received full advice. This is the largest data set of advice outcomes in the UK.
From this sample:
- £232 million worth of additional income meant that 58,000 clients gained an average of £4,370 each.
- The above additional income includes £202 million worth of benefits and tax credits successfully claimed.
- £201 million worth of debt has been written off for 16,700 clients – an average of £17,450 each.
- 38,240 clients had one or more debt repayments successfully rescheduled.
- Homelessness was prevented or averted for over 5,000 clients.
- Over 2,000 clients received £1.4 million worth of loans, reimbursements, goods or services.
For more information:
Client satisfaction
Overall client satisfaction with the Citizens Advice service has risen to 96 per cent in 2010/11.
162,300 clients were surveyed in 2010/11 regarding their satisfaction about a range of aspects of our service. This represents 8 per cent of the 2.1 million clients we saw in the period and provides a robust evidence base. This document provides a summary of our results.
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