Citizens Advice and Financial Capability John Rhodes Head of Financial Capability Citizens Advice England and Wales European Parliament - 27 January 2010

About us Our service: Free, independent, confidential, impartial advice, open to all 1.9 million individual clients advised last year 6 million advice issues dealt with last year 9 million visits to our information site Our structure: 400+ independent charities – Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) Over 3,300 community locations 6,000 staff and 21,000 volunteers

Financial Education The need: Debt is our top issue 1.9 million problems a year The response: Financial education to reach people before (next) crisis point All ages, but focus on low income adults ie ½ - of all bureaux now deliver financial education 25+ regional and county forums Wide range of programmes reaching 250,000 people in :20 funding from financial and public sectors

Financial Education: our model Partnership and Community based Go out to other organisations and train their service users Train their frontline workers to support service users and signpost Use community volunteers Use professional volunteers pro-bono Responsive to different needs and backgrounds Group or one-to-one Short, interactive, non-judgemental sessions Topics: budgeting; basic banking; credit and borrowing; dealing with debt; getting good deals on gas, electricity, phones; saving

Partnership working Delivery: Regional / Local Forums identify and address community priorities Housing Associations, Credit Unions, Minority groups etc Support: Private Sector – primarily financial services, money and resources Public Sector – Central and Local Government, and ESF Partnership reach

Impact Recent campaigns 90% of participants in a national savings campaign felt better informed 50% of consumers reached by Energy Best Deal campaign taken action Evidence of offering pathways to work and benefits to local communities

Challenges/Opportunities Evaluations of impact Long term funding Maximising links between debt advice, financial education, product knowledge and wider employment agendas

Contacts To find out more about Citizens Advice: See To find out more about our financial education work: See To contact me: