Skye & Lochalsh Citizens Advice Bureau

The Skye and Lochalsh Citizens Advice Bureau is an affiliate of Citizens Advice Scotland and exists to support individuals and families in their lives.

The aim is to ensure that individuals do not suffer through lack of knowledge of their rights and responsibilities, or the Services available to them, or through an inability to express their needs effectively.

Equally the Bureau strives to exercise a responsible influence on the development of social policies and services, both locally and nationally.

Citizens Advice Scotland and Scottish Citizens Advice Bureaux work together to achieve these aims.

The service is delivered primarily by unpaid volunteers drawn from the communities, supported by permanent staff who have special experience in subjects like money matters , welfare rights or employment issues.

Volunteers are provided with extensive training and mentored by experienced staff. Their advice is monitored and kept up to date about changes in law and benefit systems and Bureau volunteers develop networking processes to share experiences and pointers to the right sources to be used for advising clients.

The Bureau supports volunteers in achieving SVQ through their experiences with us.

Where trends are identified which indicate that clients are being treated unfairly or illegally the Bureau routinely brings pressure to bear on service providers both locally and nationally to deal with the matters.

Bureau members identify where their level of knowledge is insufficient to fully advise clients and refer them to professionals who are able to offer complex and competent advice.

Bureaux operate under a series of guiding principles.

The service is free and, importantly in communities, absolutely confidential. It is impartial – workers do not judge people. It is independent of outside agencies and the aim is to make the service available to all; effective to the extent that client’s needs are met, and open, democratic and responsible to the community.

Advice is offered but the client makes their decision with our help. Information is drawn confidentially from client’s experience to influence change and, importantly, there is no restriction on the topics we are prepared to give advice on.

Volunteering is rewarding and enjoyable. The diversity of problems presented is huge as is the range of information requested either out of simple interest or from a need for action. The bureau also provides a listening ear service for clients to talk over problems and reach their own conclusions as to what is needed.

Personal reward for volunteers comes from a feeling that we have made a real difference to client’s lives. People present apparently insurmountable problems and, hopefully, at the end of the process, find that there are often solutions initially invisible to them.
Clients often become disheartened by complex benefit or tax documents. We arrange to help in their completion occasionally in clients homes when through illness, disability or simple accessibility such a provision is seen as vital to them.

Accessibility is important in an area with population as widespread as ours and the Bureau is seeking to deliver advice from clinics in more remote locations where clients find it either costly or physically impossible to get to the main office. Home visits are also carried out to individual clients.

In dealing with the range of problems presented, realism has to feature. Not all problems will result in simple or comfortable solutions but advisers seek to offer choices which allow clients to move on.

Dealing with official bodies can require decisions to be challenged. Bureaux become involved in the preparation of submissions to independent reviewing panels and in the personal presentation of the relevant arguments on clients’ behalves. We have a good success rate in revising decisions in our client’s favour.

Some disputes do not reach the level of legal representation. Advisers can and do negotiate with official bodies for decisions to be reconsidered either because of additional information or because the interpretation of facts could differ. In these areas clients are often at a loss as to how they can influence the initial decisions and adviser’s experience can be of real help.

Many enquiries involve the supply of goods and services when advisers can find themselves negotiating the  replacement or repair of defective goods or challenging inappropriate or ineffective service.

Personal financial difficulties figure large in the Bureau’s work. Whilst the more complex cases require intervention by a specialist, any of the advisers can find themselves involved in challenging disputed debt, or arranging repayment at affordable levels. In the present financial climate this area of work can only grow.

This is just a flavour of what goes on in the Bureau.

The bureau is always looking for more volunteers. If this article has aroused any interest and you are encouraged to have a go, please contact the CAB using the contact details at the top of this page.