Citizens Advice

The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free, independent and confidential advice, and by influencing policymakers.

Every Citizens Advice Bureau is a registered charity reliant on trained volunteers and funds to provide these vital services for local communities.

Citizens Advice service strategy 2008 - 2011 cover


Benefits and tax credits

Citizens Advice regularly publishes parliamentary briefings relating to Bills and amendments to Bills using evidence of our clients' problems.

Influencing policy and decision-makers is at the heart of the Citizens Advice service. The evidence we gain by helping people locally to resolve individual problems is used to inform our work in Parliament. Every year, Citizens Advice receives over 42,000 detailed reports from Citizens Advice Bureaux on client problems caused by bad or unfair laws, policies and practices. This gives us extremely rich qualitative date in every area of client detriment from which to inform policy debate.

With a local presence in almost every Parliamentary constituency, the Citizens Advice service has its finger on the pulse of every local community.

In this area of our website you will be able to find details of our work in Parliament.

Social security is the second largest problem area for Citizens Advice Bureaux dealt with more over 1.5 million new problems in 2007/08. Clients seek assistance with establishing eligibility, making benefit claims, chasing applications progress and appealing against decisions.

Related Citizens Advice service work


TitleDescriptionDate
Child Poverty Bill, House of Commons, Second ReadingCitizens Advice Parliamentary Briefing22-07-2009
Welfare Reform Bill - House of Lords, Grand CommitteeCitizens Advice Parliamentary Briefing15-06-2009
The impact of benefit fraud investigations on Citizens Advice Bureaux clientsCitizens Advice Briefing for the House of Commons Justice Select Committee Inquiry30-04-2009
Welfare Reform Bill, House of Lords, Second ReadingCitizens Advice Parliamentary Briefing29-04-2009
The Budget Report 200908-04-2009
Tariff income and means tested benefitsCitizens Advice Parliamentary Briefing01-04-2009
Welfare Reform Bill - Report Stage: House of LordsCitizens Advice Parliamentary Briefing23-03-2007
Welfare Reform Bill: Second Reading, House of CommonsCitizens Advice Parliamentary briefing24-07-2006
Access to benefits and other payments through Post Office Card AccountsParliamentary Briefing22-03-2006
Government contract for the Post Office card account (POCA)Citizens Advice Parliamentary briefing16-02-2006
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