Our Local Impact

We may be a small charity, but we are having a huge impact in South Gloucestershire. Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire continues to run face-to-face advice in 12 neighbourhoods across the county, providing a point of “real person” contact 14 times in any given week. We also provide telephone advice every weekday (except Bank Holidays) – all run by our incredible volunteers. Our office also provides specialist advice including for Universal Credit, debt and energy.

In 2025/26, we helped 7,341 people with more than 33,000 issues. We are experiencing people using our service needing us for an increased number of issues as well as increasing complexity.

Although our services meet a lot of people who come to as a last resort often needing debt, housing or employment advice particularly during the cost of living crisis, our services are open to ANYONE in South Gloucestershire – about anything. By being accessible and continuing our services for FREE, we hope to prevent people from needing us in desperate need.

Read our latest Impact Reports here:

More headlines from our latest Impact Report include:

• For every £1 invested in our service in 2023/24, we generated:
  • £31.73 in wider economic and social benefits (total: £25m)
  • £31.84 in financial value to the people we help (total: £25m)
  • £3.11 in savings to government and public services (Total: £2.5m)
• In terms of our impact:
  • 92% of clients felt the service helped them find a way forward
  • 82% of clients said their problem was now resolved
  • 94% of clients said they were likely to recommend the service to a friend
  • 79% of clients said we were easy to access
• In terms of how we deliver advice:
  • We held around 400 public drop-in sessions
  • We had more than 9,000 telephone appointments with clients
  • We spoke with clients via email more than 5,000 times

“You have given me the light I needed to see at this awful time in my life.”

Sarah* has mental and physical health issues meaning she struggles being out of the house.

She needed help filling in a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) form in relation to her Universal Credit claim.

She said she had asked a number of professionals including her counsellor for help with this but had been “passed around” and not received the help she needed.

After contacting the Citizens Advice Adviceline, she was put in touch with Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire.

Our Adviser Jacky was able to complete the WCA form with her over the phone.

Sarah was recently informed she has been awarded Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) status – the best possible outcome for her, meaning she will get an extra amount of money each month.

She has said this will allow her to pay for private healthcare as she is struggling to get the help she needs on the NHS.

In a heartfelt email of thanks to Jacky, Sarah wrote: “I cannot thank you enough for the help you have given me.

“I’m so grateful for your assistance and am getting emotional writing this.

“You have given me the light I needed to see at this awful time in my life.”

*not her real name.