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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why do people cite Citizens Advise as the holy grail?

65 replies

sillyonehetpes · 18/05/2023 14:51

The advisors are on a low wage and no formal legal qualifications.

AIBU to think they aren't the holy grail

OP posts:
AllIeveknewonlyou · 18/05/2023 15:01

I was under the impression that the frontline checked first with various organisations before giving out information and were supervised by highly skilled people

AllIeveknewonlyou · 18/05/2023 15:02

Most of first point of contact are volunteers anyway?

Hbh17 · 18/05/2023 15:06

The advisors are mostly volunteers, but are well-trained and have access to a fantastic database of accurate information. They are not lawyers, and do not pretend to be, but they are impartial, confidential and non-judgmental - all things which are vital in any independent advice.

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 18/05/2023 15:07

I used to deal with Citizens Advice through my former job (they're now called Community Advice in NI) and the volunteers I spoke to were predominantly qualified solicitors. I've also dealt with volunteers who knew the benefits system better than those working in it and they've been a godsend for lots of people in trouble. Maybe Citizens Advice is different where you are.

AndTheSurveySays · 18/05/2023 15:09

The two times I've used the CAB they have given me terrible advice that would have gotten me in legal trouble had I followed it. I'm thankful I had a funny feeling the info was incorrect and managed to scrape enough money together for proper legal advice.

Mrsjayy · 18/05/2023 15:13

sillyonehetpes · 18/05/2023 14:51

The advisors are on a low wage and no formal legal qualifications.

AIBU to think they aren't the holy grail

The advisors are trained well and not all paid a lot of people volunteer. But cab are a great resource for people needing help with forms or benefit claiments housing etc etc. They will signpost people if they need proper legal advice It takes 6 months to do the CAB course..

Mrsjayy · 18/05/2023 15:14

AndTheSurveySays · 18/05/2023 15:09

The two times I've used the CAB they have given me terrible advice that would have gotten me in legal trouble had I followed it. I'm thankful I had a funny feeling the info was incorrect and managed to scrape enough money together for proper legal advice.

Really are you sure ?

Meeting · 18/05/2023 15:16

No idea, I called them once and they were utterly useless. I wasn't aware that they had no legal qualifications and I feel this should be clearer given that they are advising people

Original poster
sillyonehetpes · 18/05/2023 15:16

AllIeveknewonlyou · 18/05/2023 15:02

Most of first point of contact are volunteers anyway?

Nope

OP posts:
Redannie118 · 18/05/2023 15:16

We are going through the process of having our house repossessed and CAB were worse than useless, in fact theyve been useless everytime ive ever spoken to them. In case anyone is interested some charities i would recommend-

Stepchange- Money, debt, benefits, court cases, debt relief orders ect. Friendly, easy to understand and all round bloody amazing.

ACAS- Anything to do with employment law and rights. Tbh just speaking to them has often been enough to get unreasonable employers to back down

Shelter- All housing issues and homelessness. Very helpfull if you have medical issues related to housing.

SCOPE- brilliant for practical advice related to disability issues.

Hope this helps anyone looking outside CAB.

Itdoesnthavetobejusrol · 18/05/2023 15:20

Citizens Advice can help with a large variety of tricky problems, especially financial. They have access to data banks where they can feed yori details in, and then tell you what your options are.

They are invaluable to people who have limited internet access for whatever reason.

They helped me look at all the financial options when I was 9 months pregnant and had the option of voluntary redundancy or maternity leave/risk of involuntary redundancy. This was extremely useful!

I've even used them on a professional level to ask a specific legal question and they were very knowledgeable. They can help with building regs processes, adult social services questions, local authority red tape and so much more.

Daisydu · 18/05/2023 15:21

In my experience they only do what you can do yourself, google it.

excab · 18/05/2023 15:22

I used to be a volunteer generalist advisor. You have to be impartial and non-judgemental.
The training is very thorough and lasts over a long period of several months. They have an excellent database online, some of which is now available online to everyone: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

At all sessions there was someone senior to whom I could refer and the case notes on the system had to be in a set format to ensure issues were not left unaddressed.
You do not tell the client what they should do. Instead you establish a range of options and discuss the pros and cons of each, so they can make their own decision.
There was a check at a later stage as well, so other staff could intervene later if something had been missed.

Citizens Advice

Online free advice from Citizens Advice to help you find a way forward, whatever the problem. Our research enables us to campaign on issues affecting people's lives.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Daisydu · 18/05/2023 15:23

Btw, my sister works for them, and she’s on a good wage, and had a fair bit of training, but no qualifications…

GasPanic · 18/05/2023 15:23

They aren't a holy grail but are a good first contact point and will probably have experience of lots of different situations.

Even if they can't help they can often point you in the right direction.

They are also free, so you get what you pay for.

gogohmm · 18/05/2023 15:23

Citizens advice are mostly well meaning volunteers, they are not geared up to deal with complex issues you need a solicitor for, they can give general advice on a wide range of issues and signpost you to specialists. If you don't like what they offer feel free to go elsewhere and pay for advice! Honestly some people here don't get that people are giving up their time to try and help.

AndTheSurveySays · 18/05/2023 15:24

Really are you sure ?

Yes .

twoshedsjackson · 18/05/2023 15:25

After her retirement from the Civil Service, my late DM volunteered to work for the CAB.
Mostly, she was playing to her great strength - filing! - but I remember her speaking highly of the information resources provided, and how they were updated.
Part of her training was knowing when to offer practical advice with matters such as form-filling, and when to steer clients towards an agency with more specialist knowledge.
She would have been the first to acknowledge that the advice they could give was not equivalent to a consultation with a specialist solicitor, for example.

GasPanic · 18/05/2023 15:26

gogohmm · 18/05/2023 15:23

Citizens advice are mostly well meaning volunteers, they are not geared up to deal with complex issues you need a solicitor for, they can give general advice on a wide range of issues and signpost you to specialists. If you don't like what they offer feel free to go elsewhere and pay for advice! Honestly some people here don't get that people are giving up their time to try and help.

Yes and it's always worth noting that the aim of citizens advice is not to get you to take more citizens advice.

Most of the lawyers I have spoken to have said, you need to spend more money on lawyers. I wonder why that is.

If you can use citizens advice to at least get you some idea of a situation and the outline of it before you go to see a solicitor it can save you money and be helpful in getting your thoughts straight.

squidgybits · 18/05/2023 15:28

I have found over the years that it is easier to find the information yourself rather than the faff of contacting citizens advice. They are hard to get hold of and do not have any magical information that can't be found elsewhere

excab · 18/05/2023 15:32

squidgybits · 18/05/2023 15:28

I have found over the years that it is easier to find the information yourself rather than the faff of contacting citizens advice. They are hard to get hold of and do not have any magical information that can't be found elsewhere

This is probably true if you are an articulate person but they provide 'face to face' help for virtually anyone who turns up to ask for it.
There are many people who cannot easily cope with 'form filling'/'fighting their own corner' and CAB can and should directly help with that. They can draft letters for people as well or pick up the phone on the client's behalf. Not everyone has trusted friends or relatives who could help in this direct way.

nwatty · 18/05/2023 15:36

People often come to me at my work having been directed to us by CAB having been given the completely wrong advice!

1offnamechange · 18/05/2023 15:54

I don't think anyone thinks of them as the Holy grail, just an accessible resource that can be fairly useful -which a majority of the time they are.

If you've got the confidence, education or knowledge to research things yourself, or the money to consult legal representation then you might not be the targeted audience. But for those that don't have those benefits there aren't many other free and comparatively accessible alternatives out there.

What would your alternative be? Avoid suggesting CA because they might not know everything or, as a first point of contact generalist be as highly trained as a specialist in whatever field? Solicitors, doctors, council workers etc are also not inflallible/all knowing and can also be wrong!

LakieLady · 18/05/2023 15:55

In many areas, CAB are all there is now that there's minimal funding for advice work. They are the only organisation that delivers welfare rights advice in my entire district council area.

They are also one of very few agencies that can give advice on almost anything. This may mean that their advice on, say, housing or immigration matters isn't as expert as that of specialist agencies, but they still do a damn fine job imo.

My local CAB has a qualified solicitor working there, and some of their welfare rights workers are awesome. One at a town near me was responsible for a bit of very specific case law that is now cited by anyone in welfare rights who comes across the same issue. Their debt advisers have to be trained and accredited in order to apply for DROs and some other debt solutions (this is why my colleagues and I only do very basic debt work - we can't afford the time or the expense of training and accreditation).

There would be a lot more professionally trained advisers if the govt hadn't cut Legal Services Commission funding for a lot of advice work (loss of funding for welfare rights and housing advice led to the loss of 4 posts at one CAB I'm familiar with). And I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened at the same time as the Welfare Reform Act came in, which made everything a lot more complex and significantly disadvantaged claimants.

LakieLady · 18/05/2023 16:02

I'm a fan of Stepchange, too @Redannie118 , but their service is no use at all to people who can't cope with complex phone calls or have literacy or numeracy issues (which is most of my clients).

When I was working on a different project, we could do home visits and make the phone calls for/with them. But guess what? The funding for that service was cut several times, and they can't do that sort of work with clients any more. They have to signpost them to CAB.