Citizens Advice
British charitable organisation / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Citizens Advice[n 1] (previously Citizens Advice Bureau[9][n 2] and also known as Cyngor ar Bopeth[n 3] in Welsh[10]) is an independent organisation specialising in confidential information and advice to assist people with legal, debt, consumer, housing and other problems in the United Kingdom.[11][12]
Founded | 1939[2] |
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Type | Charitable organisation[3] |
Registration no. | 279057[4] |
Focus | Advice[3] |
Location |
|
Coordinates | 51°31′04″N 00°05′51″W |
Area served | United Kingdom 316 branches nationally.[4] |
Method | Telephone, face to face, e-mail, webchat |
Key people | Clare Moriarty (Chief Executive)[6] |
Revenue | £99 million (2016/2017)[7] |
Employees | 7,000[8] |
Volunteers | 21,600[4] (2015) |
Website | www |
The twin aims of the Citizens Advice service are "to provide the advice people need for the problems they face"[13] and secondly "to improve the policies and principles that affect people's lives".[13] This research and campaigns agenda also known as "social policy" [14] is more preventative in nature and designed to stop problems arising in the first place.
Citizens Advice organisations emerged in the 1930s linked to the emergence of a fledgling social welfare service and the outbreak of World War II.[15] Public funding for the organisation was cut following the war but restored during the 1960s and a government grant in 1973 allowed the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) to expand the charity.[15] Citizens Advice has grown to be the largest independent advice provider in the United Kingdom.[16] There are also a number of Citizens Advice organisations that base themselves on the United Kingdom advice charity mainly in parts of the Commonwealth including Australia,[17] New Zealand,[18] and Gibraltar.[19]
In 2013 the Citizens Advice Adviceguide website was visited by one third of United Kingdom's online population[10] and Citizens Advice's own research shows that four in ten of the British population contact Citizens Advice at some point during their lives.[20] In 2014 Citizens Advice celebrated its 75th anniversary[21] and in 2015 the charity was named Charity of the Year at the 2015 Charity Awards.[22] During the ten year leadership of the former Chief Executive Gillian Guy Citizens Advice expanded its remit taking on the contract for the Witness Service[23] and the face-to-face advice element of Pension Wise.[24]