Looking back at 2020
In a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, here’s how Citizens Advice rose to the challenge
“You must stay at home.”
When Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said these words on 23 March this year, everything changed. Over the last 10 months, it’s meant our service has looked a bit different but we’ve still been here to help, whoever you are and whatever your problem.
Here’s the story of 2020 at Citizens Advice.
From face-to-face to remote advice — almost overnight
For 80 of our 81 years as a service, the main way people have come to us for one-to-one advice has been in person. In 2019/20, we helped 1.3 million people face-to-face — 70,000 more than in the previous year.
But, almost overnight, that all changed.
With the coronavirus pandemic came a major shift in how we provide advice. As offices were no longer open for in-person advice, our network of 272 local Citizens Advice — as well as our national services, including the Witness Service, Pension Wise and Help to Claim — switched to giving advice over the phone, via email and webchat.
The move to working from home inspired quite a bit of creativity. From securing a regular slot on the local radio station, working with local support groups and foodbanks all the way to setting up Field Office Citizens Advice Walsall and generally getting to grips with a lot of new technology, every local Citizens Advice has countless stories of incredible adaptability, resilience and generosity. The one constant — always putting those who need help first.
In total, over 21,000 volunteers and 7,000 staff were involved in this move from giving in-person advice to working from home, helping 220,000 people with one-to-one advice between 9 March and 9 April. And it’s been a busy year since…
Our busiest [insert day, month, year] ever
Like many other organisations, we saw a huge increase in demand due to the pandemic — alongside the move to remote working.
Since March, an average of 1,300 advisers logged on at home every day to answer calls, emails and webchat enquiries — together we gave one-to-one advice to 1.1 million people.
That’s 12 people helped one-to-one every minute across England and Wales.
Since March, we’ve also seen a spike in traffic to our website. As the impacts of the pandemic unfolded, we published 155 pieces of content and made 241 targeted changes to the advice on our website. Across our website, our coronavirus content has had over 7 million views since March — and our online self-help advice has been viewed 47.7 million times in total, almost a quarter more views than last year.
Between April and October, our Witness Service staff and volunteers also supported 14,220 witnesses — despite the disruption in the justice system due to the pandemic. After initially taking all staff and volunteers out of courts in March, we safely returned to supporting witnesses face-to-face — with 94% of witnesses saying they were very satisfied or satisfied with the support they’d received from the Witness Service.
“I was so nervous about giving evidence and was so upset any time I spoke about it. The Witness Service made me feel so at ease and like I had a friend with me on the day… The volunteer put me at ease and made me feel much more confident about having to give evidence.” — A witness supported by the Witness Service
And, in September, we also launched our Welsh language scheme — the first time we’ve had a revised scheme in 10 years. As an organisation working across both England and Wales, we believe an active Welsh language offer will help us provide a better service, and we’ve made some important steps toward this.
Continuing to speak up for the people we help
Our data gives us a unique insight into the worries people have and the problems they’re facing. Our website data, for example, can reveal the nation’s concerns in real time, minute-by-minute.
While we always use this information to stand up for those who come to us for help, our advocacy work was especially important this year as the impacts of the pandemic took hold.
As the full extent of the pandemic began to come into view, our influencing work helped ensure people at a higher risk from the virus — such as shielding workers and those employed by agencies — didn’t fall through the gaps of the government’s employment support schemes.
In August, our research also revealed that 6 million people in the UK had fallen behind on a household bill due to the pandemic. We’ve consistently called for action to support renters who were unable to keep up with their rent, and helped secure an extension to the eviction ban beyond August. We also worked with Ofgem and the energy sector to develop protections for energy consumers facing hardship during the pandemic — with the industry regulator subsequently making these new protections permanent.
It wasn’t all about coronavirus, though. This year also marked 2 years since we submitted a super-complaint on the Loyalty Penalty. In that time we’ve helped insurance, mobile and broadband customers save £703 million by pushing regulators to act. And the FCA recently announced plans to ban ‘price-walking’ in the insurance market, potentially saving consumers £3.7 billion over 10 years.
We also welcomed the government’s decision to increase Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by £20 per week earlier this year — and we’ll continue to call for this uplift to be made permanent.
Celebrating each other, despite being apart
Our network of local services are the core of everything at Citizens Advice. And, from switching to remote advice almost overnight to helping 12 people a minute during a pandemic, our 28,000 staff and volunteers have risen to all the challenges they’ve faced in 2020.
So, while we weren’t able to get together to reflect on the year in person, our (virtual) annual conference was attended by staff and volunteers from 85% of our network of local Citizens Advice — with over 2,100 people taking part across the week.
Despite being apart physically, this gave us the opportunity to come together to celebrate the determination, resilience and amazing work of the staff and volunteers in our network — including during our virtual awards ceremony
Looking ahead to 2021
While we couldn’t have planned for 2020, as we move to 2021 we’ll continue to adapt to the challenges that lie ahead of us. But whatever happens we’ll continue to be here for everyone — whoever they are, whatever their problem.
This blog is a snapshot of what we’ve done at Citizens Advice this year. To keep up to date with us, follow us on Twitter! And if you need any help or advice, take a look on our website.
