EBS0026

Written evidence submitted by Citizens Advice

1. Executive summary

●        Citizens Advice provided verbal evidence to the Committee on 23rd January. This submission is to provide further information in 2 areas to complete actions taken during the hearing.

●        The first action relates to the increase in people accessing the services Citizens Advice provides. Citizens Advice continues to see record numbers of people contacted us looking for help with energy issues

●        The second action is about evidence relating to rural poverty, where we are also seeing significant increases in support provided, especially related to energy issues.

2. About Citizens Advice

2.1 Citizens Advice gives people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

2.2 Our network of independent charities offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free.

2.3 Citizens Advice helped 2.55 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2021-22. And we had 40.6 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.

2.4 Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 18,500 trained volunteers, working at over 2,500 service outlets across England and Wales. Citizens Advice is the largest provider of free, multi-channel debt advice. Providing that help gives Citizens Advice unique insight into the types of debts people struggle with.

2.5 We use our evidence to show how things can be improved for people.

3. Submission

3.1 The following information relates to action Q 14: In response to Peter Grant, you commented that you could share some information from your cost of living briefing on increases in people contacting Citizen’s Advice about energy bills

3.2 Our latest cost of living data dashboard which can be accessed here.

3.3 2022 saw record numbers of people contacting our service with concerns around their energy bills. By the end of last year we helped more than 235,000 people with energy issues, more than 50% more than in 2021 and more than double the number we helped in 2020. January 2023 was the highest on record for the number of people helped with energy issues.[1]

3.4 We also helped record numbers of people who could not afford to top up their prepayment meters. In 2022 we helped more than 27,000 people who could not afford to top up their prepayment meter, more than 3 times as many people as in 2021, and more than the whole of the previous ten years combined.[2]

3.5 The most common way for people to seek advice from Citizens Advice is through our website. In 2022 more than 1 million people (1,066,444) accessed our webpage on ‘grants and benefits to help you pay your energy bills’, more than a 570% increase on 2021 (157,448).

3.6 The following information relates to action Q 34: In response to Jonathan Djanogly, you said you would look to see if there was any research you could share on rural poverty.

3.7 The cost of living dashboard also allows data to be viewed by Local Authority.

3.8 For example, the average number of people helped with crisis support per 10,000 was 5.87 for mainly rural and 4.69 for largely rural Local Authorities in Q2 2021/22. In the same quarter in 2022-23 it was 10.82 people per 10,000 in mainly rural and 12.31 people in largely rural LAs - an increase of 84% and 162% respectively.

3.9 The average number of people helped with crisis support per 10,000 across all Local Authorities in Q3 2022/23 was 11.02. The average for urban Local Authorities was 10.6, while for rural LAs it was 12.14.[3]

3.10 Separately, the Citizens Advice Rural Issues Group produced a report in 2022 looking into rural poverty (‘Hopeless: An Interim Report of Poverty in Rural Life’).

March 2023