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 service strategy 2008-2011

• About us

Twenty things you should know about the Citizens Advice service

1. The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing free information and advice, and by influencing policymakers.
2. Citizens Advice (the national organisation) and each Citizens Advice Bureau are registered charities.
3. Citizens Advice Bureaux are funded by money from local authorities, Lottery funds, charitable trusts, companies, individuals and others.
4. The work of the Citizens Advice service impacts on people’s lives in thousands of different ways – through advice, campaigns, free skills training for volunteers, empowering individuals, increasing incomes and more.
5. Citizens Advice Bureaux provide free, independent and impartial information and advice from 3,200 locations.
6. Citizens Advice Bureaux have been providing free advice in local communities since 1939.
7. The Citizens Advice service is a respected source of influence on local and national policy. We use evidence of our clients' problems to campaign for improvements to policies and services.
8. The Citizens Advice service is well known by the public - 95 per cent have heard of us (MORI 2005).
9. Citizens Advice Bureaux help people with 5.5 million new problems a year.
10. The Citizens Advice service is both an employer and skills training agency with a workforce of over 26,000 people, the majority of whom are trained volunteers.
11. Our advice is available in bureaux, in community venues such as GP surgeries, in people's homes, on the phone, by email and at www.adviceguide.org.uk
12. Citizens Advice Bureaux are the largest providers of free, independent money advice in the UK.
13. We deal with more than one million new debt issues each year.
14. Our trained advisers can give general advice on virtually anything from benefit claims to unfair dismissal, debt and housing rights.
15. CAB advisers can write letters and make phone calls to companies and service providers on people's behalf, help people to prioritise their debts, negotiate with creditors, refer people to specialist CAB case workers and others and specialist advisers can represent people at courts and tribunals.
16. Many bureaux have specialist advisers including money, employment and housing caseworkers.
17. The financial contribution of our volunteers is worth around £86 million a year.
18. Across England and Wales, Citizens Advice Bureaux can give advice in over 40 languages.
19. AdviserNet, our regularly updated online information system used by CAB advisers is unrivalled for its breadth, depth and quality. Subscribe to AdviserNet
20. CAB information and advice is available at www.adviceguide.org.uk in English, Welsh, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Urdu.

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