Frequently Asked Questions

Our advisers can help with:

• Accessing benefits at any stage in your application process - whether you need support finding out what you may be entitled to, all the way through to support challenging decisions you disagree with
• Your debts - from initial assessments of your debts all the way to support you with statutory debt remedies
• Looking at your income and expenditure, and discuss where else your income could be maximised or where your outgoings could be reduced, through accessing available adjustments such as re-negotiating debt repayments or applying for council tax reduction.

We will help you break down your situation by asking you questions to find out more. We often find that people come to us with one issue that uncovers a few more related issues that we can help with. 

We may not always have the time in one appointment to deal with everything, but your advisor will be able to discuss options with you, help you prioritise and create a plan for tackling your issues holistically.

The Scottish Association of Citizen Advice Bureaux has a long history of giving high quality, free, non-judgemental, confidential, independent advice.

We aim to connect you with an adviser who has experience of helping people in similar situations to you. We do this by having an initial call to find out more, and then connect you with either a generalist or specialist adviser.

All of our advisers are highly skilled and undergo many hours of training, whether paid or volunteers. We also have robust quality assurance and auditing processes in place, to ensure our advice quality is constantly reviewed and maintained.

Your adviser will identify anything you may be entitled to and, where appropriate, help you make a claim.

Your adviser will assess which benefit(s) you’re entitled to based upon the information you provide in a confidential, non-judgemental and holistic manner. Your adviser cannot take any benefits away from you but will let you know if it appears that you are in receipt of something which does not correspond with the information you provide about your household circumstances, and discuss what this means for you.

This will depend on what advice you are looking to access. For benefits and income maximisation advice, you will not need a credit score check. However, if you are dealing with debts, your adviser may advise you about a circumstance where a credit score check may be needed.

Citizens Advice and its Money Talk Team are confidential, non-judgemental and impartial. In order to help you, you will need to provide as much information to your adviser as possible so they can explore all your options. This information isn't shared with anyone outside of the Citizen Advice network in Scotland without your permission. We use anonymised data to gather evidence and better understand how the service is performing, but this doesn't involve anyone knowing anything about you.

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When being in contact with your local bureau, each bureau will be able to support you to access their services. This may not be the same in each bureau, so contact them directly to find out how they can best support your needs.

‍Find contact details for your local bureau

Gaining advice from the Money Talk Team should be sought by the person whom it relates to. There are however some circumstances where this is not possible. Please contact your local bureau directly to discuss what options are available to you.

Lots of people find talking to someone about their debt issues really difficult whether they know them or not. Often people can experience negative emotions, for example feelings of shame or guilt. Debt issues can feel overwhelming and it’s common to want to avoid thinking about and confronting issues.

Here at Citizen Advice we understand, and our advisers will listen non-judgmentally. You can expect to feel heard by an empathetic person, and helped to decide your options. Above all, advisers want to help you improve your situation and feel better. When asked, advisers frequently state that they wish people could take the step to get in touch earlier - the earlier in the process that people get in touch, the simpler it is to resolve issues.