page_title: Citizens Advice
section_title: Citizens Advice Scotland
hierarchical_section_title: Citizens Advice / Organisation / Citizens Advice Scotland
caption_attribution_description: English: external image of leith citizens advice bureau in Edinburgh, taken in 2015.
context_page_description: Citizens Advice is a network of 316 independent charities throughout the United Kingdom that give free, confidential information and advice to assist people with money, legal, consumer and other problems. The twin aims of the Citizens Advice service are "to provide the advice people need for the problems they face" and secondly "to improve the policies and principles that affect people's lives". This research and campaigns agenda also known as "social policy" 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. 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 to expand the charity. Citizens Advice has grown to be the largest independent advice provider in the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), formally the Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (SACAB), is a registered charity. Based in Edinburgh it comprises 61 member bureaux, including a national helpline (Citizens Advice Direct). Together these free local and national services provide legal advice, practical help and information on consumer and political rights across the country. CAS provides central support to local bureaux with management, research, fundraising, IT support, training and campaigning. CAS launched a national helpline in 2005, called Citizens Advice Direct, staff were based in Glasgow city centre.
  In 2012 a study showed that most of CAS's activity was the provision of advice across five areas: benefits, debt, employment, housing  and relationship. In 2012, there were concerns that five of the bureaux in Glasgow might close, however they remained open after accepting a new funding offer. CAS has been registered as a charity since 3 August 1984, currently registered as a charitable company with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), Scottish charity number SC 016637. According to 2016 statistics Citizens Advice Scotland helped 300,000 clients and put £120 million into the pockets of people seeking help in 2015/16 and help reduce the amount owed by those seeking debt advice by £27 million.
caption: Leith Citizens Advice (pictured) is one of 61 local Citizens Advice offices serving Scotland.
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