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.

• Our impact report

• Our service strategy 2008-2011

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Annual Report 2004 - Our aims and principles

If you need to chase your benefit claim, sort out your money problems, or make a complaint about the NHS – a Citizens Advice Bureau can help.

• You’ve been working for 15 years for the same company, but they’re making redundancies. You’re on the list. You’re not sure they’ve followed the right procedures and surely you should get more than one weeks’ salary?
• You get home from work. There are three letters on your doorstep. The first is from the local council, reminding you Council Tax is overdue for payment, the next is your credit card bill. The last is from your bank charging you for telling you how overdrawn you are.

For millions of households in the UK debt is just one problem they face daily, and changes in working practices make redundancy a real issue for many. To see how a visit to a Citizens Advice Bureau can prevent a problem becoming a crisis, take a look at the photo story.

Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, high quality CAB information and advice is regularly delivered from over 3,200 locations, provided by 496 Citizens Advice Bureaux – all independent charities and members of Citizens Advice, the national association. The information is free, impartial, and open to everybody regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or nationality. During 2003/04 we helped with 5,605,000 new problems, covering everything from benefits and housing to asylum and employment.

As the national association, Citizens Advice sets standards for advice and equal opportunities and supports bureaux with an information system, training and other services. Citizens Advice also co-ordinates social policy, campaigning, media, publicity and parliamentary work.

For 65 years, we have been helping people to find solutions to legal, money, and other problems and influencing policymakers to make changes to benefit everyone.

The Citizens Advice service couldn't survive without help from trusts, lottery funds, companies and individuals. Without their support, many of our projects would not see the light of day.

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