Services provided as part of income maintenance services These are run by central and local government. Many services within a single authority are not linked and clients are pushed from pillar to post. Financial services in Councils are often not consumer orientated and the premises are frequently poor. Independent Advice centres There are a large number of these across Scotland. Again there are some outstanding examples of good practice.
Many centres are part of one or more networks.
However they vary greatly in scope and quality. Their funders are overwhelmingly local authorities but they rarely link their services with the local authority. With the introduction of single-tier local authorities there has been a number of reviews of the location and effectiveness of the existing services. Again, many remain under-funded, poorly managed and provide services on terms set by the centres not the clients. Premises are frequently of poor quality and often very off-putting on the outside.