Citizens Advice

[Nasreen]

Does anyone volunteer for Citizens Advice (or perhaps you have done so in the past?). How do you find it?

I am at the beginning of my journey with CA and as much as I find it really interesting, it does also feel quite overwheling. I think this is to do with the sheer volume of areas which we cover as a service.

I am in the middle of my mandatory training at present, combined with shadowing experienced advisors and working my way through my training books.

Just wondered if there were any fellow CAB volunteers who would like to share their experiences with me?

Thanks :)

I have started working for them fairly recently although we are funded by a charity but employed by CAB. I'm finding it really interesting although my advice work is quite specific. I've found the training really good and am amazed by the knowledge of the volunteers.

I volunteered with them for 6 months and loved it! I got to the stage of doing my own gateways, though sadly didn't quite get signed off as fully trained before I had to quit because I was pregnant and really struggling with sickness and backache. Id definitely like to go back once DD2 is at school.

It is quite daunting to begin with, especially all the benefits stuff, but I found the training really good, and we always had to check everything with the supervisor before giving out any info just to make sure we hadn't missed anything. I only had one bad experience where a guy got very angry because we couldn't give him the forms he wanted.