Good advice empowers people to take control of their lives and to be active members of our community.

We give local people the information they need when and where they need it, to help them live independently.

Our clients are often some of the most vulnerable members of society who, for one reason or another, find themselves disadvantaged by or even victims of a local or national policy. We campaign for changes in policy to stop injustice.

Citizens Advice National Statistics

In the year April 2010 -March 2011,over 2 million clients were advised about 8.2 million problems, in the course of 5.3 million contacts with clients (face to face, or by phone,letter or email). In parallel to this individual service from bureax, our ‘Adviceguide’website for the public received over seven million visitors.

At Kingston CAB most of our clients phone us, and we also have an information centre where people can drop in for information on weekdays. We work closely with other agencies locally and refer clients on when this is best for them. 

Most of the people who work for Kingston Citizens Advice are volunteers. Last year our  volunteers contributed over 17,000 hours ofwork for us and we calculate the monetary value of this help to be about £250,000.

Client numbers and advice delivery 2010/2011

• An average of 270 new clients were helped per month – 6% more than last year
• Advice was given on 7052 issues , with over 14,600 contacts with clients
• More clients were advised about Debts than any other topic



We help people from all sections of the community

25% of clients were of black or minority ethnic backgrounds
11% were disabled of which 8% had long term health problems
14% were aged under 25 and 6% were aged 65 or over,
24% were single parents
19% were couples with dependent children
23% were in full-time employment, 12% in part-time employment, 4% were self-employed
61% were unemployed or otherwise economically inactive
39% were private sector tenants
26% owned or were buying their own house
12% did not have their own home (homeless, hostel or living with relatives/friends)