Why do people cite Citizens Advise as the holy grail?

[sillyonehetpes]

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

AIBU to think they aren't the holy grail

my local one is absolutely rubbish, unsympathetic, ill-informed, gave me false information, didn't even offer me a tissue after their false information, didn't signpost me to anyone else that could help.... don't provide a 'service' if you have nothing to offer 🤦🏽‍♀️ made a complaint which they replied to pretty sharpish 😳

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I don't think they're particularly good. Maybe different branches do different things though.

A lot of them are volunteers or just starting out. I worked as a benefits advisor with them and had zero experience, everything I knew I had taught myself. Within about a week of starting I was advising in a hospital setting to cancer patients ( CAB partnership with macmillan). Fortunately I knew my stuff mainly but other advisors I worked alongside were terrible and cost clients huge amounts in missed money when they failed to identify entitlement because they had little knowledge of the Uc rules. I left in the end because I couldn't sit by and watch vulnerable people misadvised and managers who were not prepared to do anything about it because they were too overworked to manage the capability process for incompetent staff.

Because their advice is more likely to be correct than some randomer on the internet

Yes I think there's a huge variation between branches and probably between different teams at a branch.

My mum speaks to them often and sings their praises. The one time I phoned them, they refused to help and I burst into tears after I put the phone down.

Where have you seen people cite anything as the holy grail?

I don't think anyone claims they are the holy grail. But they are trained in the detail of very specific laws eg around benefits and divorce
So probably know than random people on the Internet. If you don't like them or the service don't use it.

This. Also a generalist adviser is not allowed to give legal advice. As others have said much of the work is helping those who struggle to deal with officialdom. Usually if legal advice is required clients will be referred to solicitors or a law centre. The trouble is that funding for law centres has been cut to the bone. CA have specialist teams e.g dealing with debt or benefits or will refer to other organisations. They can also refer clients to other sources of grants which may not be common knowledge.

Quality of advice will vary but this is also applies to qualified lawyers.

Experienced advisers, whether volunteers or not, can be very knowledgeable.

Perhaps if law centres were properly funded then there would not be such a need for people to use CA.

The problem is that people think CA can solve any problem, you often see people advise to go to CA for things they can't deal with.

I was a volunteer with them a few years ago, the training they provide is pretty thorough but they are not solicitors and can't deal with your divorce, get your parking ticket overturned after you have gone through the appeals process and there is a photo of you parked on double yellows or any other specialist matters. A lot of volunteers were trainee solicitors looking to get some experience and one was a retired solicitor.

They are very good with benefits and debt, there are a lot of people who need help navigating the system and talking to officials. My local office also had a paid employment advisor who took employment cases to tribunal and often won.

In my area, we sent most housing matters to a specialist housing charity.

I don't think it's 'cited as the holy grail' but it's a decent service that is free at the point of access, certainly a good first port of call for a lot of things.

False advice?

Don't rate CAB at all, went to them once, I was in 10's of thousands pounds of debt and about 7 months pregnant. The advisor looked at me like I was something nasty on the bottom of her shoe when I cried.

I was pushed onto a company to manage my debt who's main aim was to make as much money out of me as they could.

Very vulnerable people are at their mercy and the standard of advice is appalling.

It's Citizens Advice, not "Citizens Advise".

It's a national organisation - actually a network of local organisations, each of them independent but affiliated to the national CA network. There are central systems and resources, and National projects, as well as a National/centralised quality control system, but such a large and varied organisation (actually a network of organisations) is going to vary hugely between offices/projects and even between advisers within them.

There isn't much point claiming that all of Citizens Advice is amazing, because there will be some offices/advisers that are crap. Equally there's no point writing off the entire organisation because your local office (or one adviser you spoke to one time) is crap.

I feel I have to speak up for Citizens Advice. I worked at Citizens Advice for many years, first as a volunteer then (after training) as a benefits adviser and then as a supervisor.
I am sure there are variations between different branches, and of course we can't solve everything. However at my branch we helped many thousands of people to claim benefits and also to work out what they were entitled to. We had a 90% success rate in helping people to win appeals when they had been denied, for example, PIP or DLA. We helped people to get debt relief orders and bankruptcies if they wanted this. We helped people in hardship to get reduced water rates, to claim food vouchers and fuel vouchers.
We had direct contact with some specialist agencies, charities and solicitors who could help clients with more specialist areas. I feel that we did, and still do, a very worthwhile job, particularly with people who are in hardship, or are struggling to deal with things, for whatever reason.

Oh and Citizens Advice does have access to resources that you can't find by Googling. They include:

• Advisernet (accessible via adviser log in only) with more detailed information and advice than the public website content
• CPAG Welfare Benefits and Tax Benefits Handbook, and other CPAG resources, which are very detailed and helpful, and which you have to pay for
• A national expert advice service that advisers and supervisors can consult for very complex cases
• Access to specialist advisers with a wealth of training, knowledge and experience in areas including debt (eg DROs, IVAs, etc), employment (with tribunal experience) and benefits (experience of MRs and appeals) - not every office will have all of these. But many of them, especially the bigger ones, will have good specialists.

Citizens Advice bureau agency have relevant training that it is obviously essential as I often used to vist this, agency quite a lot in the past, a local one and another further afield,

I know two citizens Advice volunteers on lot more than, on first names basis, one in particular I knew her for a long time,

It has a long well established reputation

I had help mostly with money issues and with Shelter charity that is often connected to citizens Advice bureau , with landlord /housing issues..

If you can use the internet search functions and navigate reliable sources then I don’t think they can do for you anything you can’t do yourself.

No one suggests they are the holy grail.

But they are a really solid free service that help a lot of people.

Not everyone can afford a lawyer.

You know this. I’m assuming you had a bad experience but this is a daft way to deal with that.

But most people don't think they're the holy grail and most people aren't so dim they think you can get legal advice for free. If you need a solicitor you will mostly have to pay for them

CA can be great, partly for those who can't manage forms or who have knotty benefits problems, but also they have great template letters for things like consumer problems, employment problems and rights.

Sort of similar…they gave me dreadful advice that would have meant I’d have lost my home.

I paid for a solicitor and it all got sorted with no ramifications whatsoever.

It made me reflect on the two tier system really- fortunately I could pay for that advice but people relying on the CAB may really suffer for it.

I volunteered for citizens advice for a year as a first point of contact for drop-ins and calls. I spent a lot of time ringing DWP and energy companies. We were based in a town with an elderly population and most of the people looking for help didn't have any support around. So I was helping with accessibility and re-explaining things that were confusing. In my area training was good and only the two supervisors in the office were paid, everyone else was a volunteer. We had no legally qualified staff so did not give legal advice. Lots of referrals to ACAS, ringing to trace pensions, helping someone fill in Turn2us etc, giving out food bank parcels. We had qualified debt advisers and PIP specialists. I lowered the average age in the office significantly and it was actually a really nice place to volunteer. I think covid has pretty much destroyed the service though.

When my SiL needed them there was a 5 month wait for a face to face appointment!