The Citizens Advice service Advice Trends Q

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1 The Citizens Advice service Advice Trends Q

2 Coming up Who we are Advice Trends Overview: Q2 of 2014/15 A closer look: Private Rented Sector Emerging issue: Slimming Pills LA data National and bureaux data

3 Who we are Who we are Our aims To provide the advice people need for the problems they face. To improve policies and practices that affect people s lives. Our principles The Citizens Advice service provides free, independent and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. We value diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination. The Citizens Advice service helps people to resolve their problems. In 2013/14 we helped 2 million people in England and Wales with 5.5 million problems.

4 Our services 2013/ member bureaux in England and Wales (F2F phone, web-chat, /letter) 2,500+ regular community locations 1,000+ ad-hoc locations Consumer advice service (phone, /letter) in England, Wales and Scotland Our website Adviceguide providing extensive self-help information on a wide range of topics.

5 The problems we dealt with in Q Bureau and Consumer Services 700,000 people advised on 1.6m problems Adviceguide page views by category in Q2 2014/ million visitors viewed over 11m pages Benefits & tax credits 461 Consumer 28% Debt 392 Benefits 18% Consumer (non-financial 222 Work 15% Housing Employment Relationships & family Legal Financial products / services Health & community care Discrimination Other Thousands Relationships Debt Housing Law Tax Healthcare Education Discrimination Financial Products and Services 1% 1% 1% 1% 2% 5% 8% 10% 10% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

6 Our bureaux client profiles Our clients closely match the population on gender, ethnicity, marital status and household type. We see more clients who are: Aged (+13%), Disabled people or with Long term health conditions (+16%) In rented accommodation (+30%), Economically inactive (+24%)

7 Top Benefit issues Top debt Issues Bureaux issues 60% are benefits or debt ESA remains the largest benefit issue despite a drop of 31%. PIP is replacing DLA and together these are the second biggest category Employment Support Allowance DLA / PIP Council tax arrears debt issues are up 20% and has overtaken counsuer credit debts types as the largest debt issue up Council tax arrears Credit, store & charge card debts Unsecured personal loan debts General entitlement and other benefits issues Housing Benefit Debt Relief Order Rent arrears - (social & private) Fuel debts Working+Child Tax Credits Jobseekers Allowance Water supply & sewerage debts Bank & building society overdrafts Telephone & broadband debts Catalogue & mail order debts Council tax reduction Attendance Allowance Bankruptcy Mortgage & secured loan arrears Other 0% 10% 20% 30% % of all benefit issues % 5% 10% 15% % of all debt issues Q Q

8 Bureaux issues Rent arrears LA/ALMOs up 6% and HAs/RSLs up 4% These have grown from 3% to 6% of all debt advice since the introduction of the under occupation penalty in housing benefit. 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 34% of clients in SH advised on possession or eviction action due to arrears were disabled or had long term health problems. 48% were single parents with dependent children. 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 2007/ / / / / / / /15 LA / ALMO HA Private

9 Consumer service - second hand cars is the biggest product and defective goods the largest enquiry type Top ten consumer issues in Q2, second hand cars are consistently the top product Second Hand Cars Home maintenance and Improvements Telecommunications Furniture Other Personal Goods and Services Professional Services Personal Computers, accessories, software and Toiletries, perfumes, beauty treatments and hairdressing Large Domestic Appliances Clothing and clothing fabric 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 Number of enquiries 31% of enquires were about defective goods & 21% about poor services Defective goods Substandard services Misleading claims/omissions Business practices Cancellation Selling practices Delivery/collection/repair Prices Offers of inadequate redress Terms and conditions Other 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 Number of enquiries

10 Millions Adviceguide Q2 over 1/3 increase Adviceguide continues to show a dramatic increase in use. Visitors are up 27% and visits are up 35%. Overall page views have increased by 37%. Consumer has increased by 52% 8 Consumer 3, Benefits 1,986 5 Work 1,668 4 Debt 1,163 3 Relationships 1,158 2 Housing Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Law ,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3, / / / /15 Visits Visitors Q2 2014/15 Q2 2013/14 Thousands

11 Adviceguide A live feed of search terms and trending topics Basic rights at work is the top page

12 Private Rented Sector: A Closer Look

13 Private Rented Sector: A Closer Look

14 Emerging Issue Slimming pills Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q

15 Dashboard April to September 2014

16 Local Authority dashboards

17 We can map where our clients live

18 Summary of our evidence The data and evidence we have tells us: National & Regional Local Bureaux Who our clients are a a The problems they present and the outcomes we achieve a a Where and how they access our services a a the barriers our clients face (legal or poor practice) a a The reports we produce include: Advice Trends & stats time series - quarterly National & Regional a Local Bureaux The Impact and value of our service - annually a a LA maps and dashboard s - annually Health and poverty reports (JSNA) - annually Local stories and intelligence - as needed a a a

19 To conclude We publish data on our key trends every quarter; Bureaux have a wealth of local data and knowledge