This year marks a significant milestone in Citizens Advice's role in the consumer protection landscape, ten years since we launched the consumer service, which directly helps people to. The Citizens Advice consumer service provides information on consumer issues and advice to help resolve problems relating to general consumer, energy or postal services. The consumer service is a free service, provided via a dedicated telephone line, email and web chat.
These circumstances have consistently driven demand across our customer service as well as our other advisory services. Through such insights, from our customer service and research, we are able to make the case for further interventions to help people through this difficult time. Between January and April 2022, customer service received more cases of prepaid meter users being disconnected than in all of 2021 combined.
In December 2021, Citizens Advice was appointed by BEIS as the consumer advocate and advice provider for people served by heating networks. During a very challenging year for energy consumers, Citizens Advice was there to offer people support and advice. Customer Service is able to refer qualified persons to the Energy Escalation Complaint Teams.
Some of the companies appealed the result, but Citizens Advice successfully intervened to oppose these appeals, including appearing before the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Putting people at the heart of the Net Zero transition
Citizens Advice online content provides people with information and advice on how to find a way forward. As the cost of living crisis hits households, we've ensured that our website users who are worried about their energy bills are better connected with debt advice, the benefits system and the support available to help with bills. We publish a range of different products to support people in navigating the energy market.
The aim is to help people make informed decisions when considering switching tariffs or suppliers. In 2021/22, Citizens Advice launched the Smart Meter Checker, which helps people identify whether their smart meter is connected to the smart meter's communications network and whether smart services will continue to be available after they change supplier. It helps to inform and support people while the program to upgrade first-generation smart meters is underway.
We use insights from our advisory services to identify and share good practice with the energy sector. In 2021/22 we published good practice guides on people struggling to pay their energy bills and consumers on the heat network - encouraging companies to improve the support provided to their customers.
Empowering energy consumers
Post
As in the energy sector, consumer services can send referrals to the Extra Help Unit if additional support is required with a problem with a regulated postal product. The service can also send referrals to Royal Mail so they can escalate their complaints processes if the defined criteria are met. This excerpt provides an overview of all cases to help partners understand common issues and challenges.
Someone then changed this redirect without her knowledge and her mail went elsewhere. She only found out when she received a new credit card statement in the mail set up in her name using her old address without her permission. We also offered a referral to Royal Mail if her initial contact with them was unsuccessful. Maya was able to resolve this issue to her satisfaction, thanking consumer services for their assistance and saying she would rate it a "ten out of ten."
The view from our consumer service
Protecting and strengthening the universal service
Protecting consumers in the parcels market
Making sure everyone has access to their post
Shining the spotlight on letter delays
Fixing the cracks in the post office network
Total number of outreach post offices
Cross-cutting consumer
The service provides advice on all stages of the life cycle of consumer issues - from pre-shopping guidance to help engage the trader, to alternative dispute resolution or other courts such as courts where appropriate. We have referrals and data links with trading standards departments in all local authorities in England and Wales, while those in Scotland also have access to data relating to traders based in their country. Some complaints require immediate referral and partner action, e.g. product safety where a client has been injured or suspected doorstep crime.
As well as providing advice on her rights, we were able to refer the matter to Trading Standards who were able to investigate the matter. They were ultimately able to secure a judgment against the trader, which included a suspended sentence and unpaid work, and Gwen was also awarded a substantial sum to compensate her for her loss.
Discriminatory pricing
Highlighting the risks of Buy-Now-Pay-Later credit
As consumers spend more time and money online, we are concerned that regulation is not keeping pace with the new challenges and risks this change brings. Our Evening the Odds report showed that online gambling is easy to get into but hard to leave, partly because of the way online gambling products and services are designed. The design of the product means that it is much easier for people to open an account and gamble than to close an account and withdraw the winnings.
With product 'nudges' that encourage consumers to spend more time and money on the site than they might have intended. This creates a situation where people find it more difficult to stay in control of their gambling and unlike physical betting shops, the sites do not close. We found that 1 in 3 gamblers said they mainly gamble between 7pm and 5am.
With gambling more accessible than ever before, we found that current 'safe gambling' ('opt-in') features are not effective. Only 13% of online gamblers have used site time reminders and 17% have used spend reminders, despite these features being useful to use. To address the risks of online gambling, we have suggested that security features should be the default setting.
Security settings are an effective tool to allow customers to take more control over their games. While we await the Gambling White Paper, we continue to call on the Government to address the current push and shove by making security features standard and ensuring that closing accounts and walking away is as easy as signing up themselves.
Scams Action
Better protections for online gambling
The FCA's changes to insurance prices went live on 1 January 2022 and were a direct result of Citizens Advice's work on the Loyalty Penalty. As energy prices rose from 2021, Citizens Advice published insights and evidence calling for targeted support for households on the lowest incomes. In autumn 2021, the government announced an additional £500 million for the Household Support Fund and reduced the Universal Credit taper rate, allowing families to keep around £1,000 each year.
Reforms to energy schemes that we have called for over a number of years mean that more households will benefit from the ECO energy efficiency scheme, and the Warm Home Discount scheme will be better targeted in England and Wales.
The impact of our advocacy work
Consumer service
This year in numbers
141 million
Throughout 2021/22, our consumer service continued to help people experiencing problems with goods and services, as well as providing advice on the energy and postal sectors. More than 60% of complaints about specific consumer issues were referred to our partners in Trading Standards. More than 10,000 customers were connected to certified alternative dispute resolution (ADR) providers, who independently assess the circumstances and either help reach consensus or make a decision about what needs to happen to resolve the case.
The people we helped
9/10 said they would use the service again. 8/10 said the service was easy or very easy to access. 3 out of 5 clients across all sectors who managed to achieve a successful outcome said they could not have done it without our help. The average value people placed on the amount they saved or recovered was over £1,000.
These represent increases for our general consumer and energy figures, which in turn contribute to a total increase of around £80 per person on average. We use the above figures within our established financial modeling methodology to estimate the total savings. It does not include savings generated for consumers as a result of information accessed through the website.
Using the methodology for calculating savings, agreed with the Department for Business Energy and Strategy.
The impact of our advice
We have direct referral routes to energy companies and as a highly regulated sector, suppliers have clear procedures to follow based on Ofgem's licensing conditions.
11 million people
The view from a delivery centre
The tables show levies-funded expenditure, in £, on consumer advocacy and levies-funded advisory services, known as the Big Energy Saving Network, by activity for the year ending 31 March 2022.
Finances
Citizens Advice helps people find a way forward
