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2022-03-31-accounts

In another year of change and uncertainty, people have never needed our services more.

2021-2022 Annual report

Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021–22

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Trustees’ report 3 – 37

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4 10 14
Introduction and Who we helped Our strategy:
About Citizens in 2021-2022 The future of
Advice advice
22 34
How we’re helping Speaking out: how
people: our services we’re influencing
across England change
and Wales
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Strategic report 38 – 65

38 Our structure, governance and management

50 Risk and internal controls

Financial statements 66 – 103

66 Independent auditor’s report

71 Financial statements

54 Energy disclosures

56 Financial review

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We are Citizens Advice

We can all face problems that seem complicated or intimidating. At Citizens Advice, we believe no one should have to face these problems without good quality, independent advice.

The Citizens Advice service offers free, confidential advice online, over the phone and in person.

When we say we’re for everyone, we mean it. People rely on us because we’re independent and totally impartial.

No one else sees so many people with so many different kinds of problems, and that gives us a unique insight into the challenges people are facing today. With the right evidence, we can show big organisations—from companies right up to the government—how they can make things better for people.

When we say we’re for everyone, we mean it. People rely on us because we’re independent and totally impartial.

That’s why we’re here: to give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward—whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

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Dame Clare Moriarty - Chief Executive

Introduction

A message from our Chief Executive

Last year’s annual report told the story of an extraordinary year in which Citizens Advice responded magnificently to the challenge of lockdown and a global pandemic. This year tells the story of an equally extraordinary, if less dramatic, year of service by our 18,500 volunteers and 8,700 staff.

If 2020-2021 was the year of the handbrake turn, 2021-2022 was the year of pushing the car up the road. Last year Citizens Advice reacted with speed and creativity to find ways of keeping our virtual doors open when the pandemic forced our physical doors to close. This year has seen us start the long slow process of feeling our way towards new blends of remote and in-person services —varying according to local circumstances—amid huge continuing uncertainty.

Sustained push is often harder than crisis reaction, and it’s been no different for us. Covid-19 hasn’t gone away, and people are tired. Thankfully the severity

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of illness is generally lower than it was in 2020 but levels of infection remained high through most of the year, affecting millions of people. For volunteers and staff, running Covid-depleted services adds to the accumulated burden of adaptation, anxiety and loss of social connection built up over the last 2 years.

For the people that we help, the year has been extremely challenging. Covid-19 support measures largely came to an end in the autumn, including the £20 uplift that had been a lifeline for people on Universal Credit—replaced with a discretionary support fund. Energy prices began soaring and quickly sparked a cost-of-living crisis with generationally high inflation and dozens of energy suppliers failing. The war in Ukraine pushed energy prices even higher and created another wave of refugees forced to leave their country.

Against this backdrop, the work of Citizens Advice is more important than ever and it’s no surprise that we have seen rising demand for our services. As well as more people seeking help we're finding that they come to us with more issues. Our advisers can feel that they're running out of tools, as measures in

place to support people in financial difficulties turn out to be better suited to short-term problems than sustained crisis of the sort that we're now seeing. That often translates into more activity rather than less by advisers on behalf of clients, as they try different avenues of support.

We're trying to meet this huge need for our services with funding that, at both national and local level, is flat or reducing in the face of increasing inflationary pressures. Whilst together this paints a pretty stark picture, I find myself optimistic about the future.

In large part this is because I've spent as much of the last year as I could learning more about our services, visiting local offices and seeing the impact of the amazing work our national and local colleagues do together. We're galvanised around our purpose, and have immense strength as a system of support, and a movement for change.

As you'll see from some of the highlights in this report, Citizens Advice thrives when our national charity supports and enables local offices to flourish and deliver advice in their local context.

We are galvanised around our purpose, and have immense strength as a system of support, and a movement for change.

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Every adviser who helps a person move forward is also contributing to the policy changes we've been able to secure, which will help millions who have never come to us directly.

I've seen the variety and diversity of local arrangements. From regional partnerships to local volunteers giving decades of service, each office has a unique context that allows them to really understand the clients they support.

Within that context I've witnessed the transformational power of our advisers treating clients as whole people, not limiting their advice to any single presenting issue. The holistic advice that we offer, recognising the interconnectedness of people’s lives and issues, is vital in empowering people to find their way forward.

And I've seen the power that we have as a system to turn this individual, human support into powerful arguments, allowing us to advocate for system change from a position of deep understanding. Every adviser who helps a person move forward is also contributing to the policy changes we've been able to secure, which will help millions who have never come to us directly.

There's more to do as we look into another very challenging year ahead, but by leaning into our unique strategic strengths I'm confident we can continue to be a positive force for change in communities and society as well as for individuals’ lives.

My thanks again to all the volunteers, staff and partners who've made the achievements of this year possible, and I look forward to the year ahead.

Dame Clare Moriarty

Chief Executive

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Warren Buckley - Chair

A message from our Chair

The loyalty and dedication of our many thousands of volunteers, from frontline to local trustees, is absolutely key to the success of our service—local people supporting members of their community is at the heart of Citizens Advice.

For our volunteers and staff, the second year of pandemic disruption has been just as challenging as the first. Through all the various Covid-19 restrictions, from lockdowns to Plan B and beyond, they’ve met these challenges and provided help and support to more people than ever before. The cost-of-living crisis, energy prices and the awful war in Ukraine has increased the pressure on our clients and therefore the service has never been busier. To help we’re investing in improved systems to make the experience of our teams as rewarding as possible, from recruitment to their invaluable day to day contributions.

As some of our remarkable volunteers tell us in this report, volunteering with Citizens Advice changes people’s lives—both for the people we help, and for the people who give their time and energy to delivering our services. We’re grateful to them for sharing their insights into how volunteering with us can help grow confidence and life skills, giving people an opportunity to flourish. It can restore

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a sense of purpose, when difficulties in life have left them feeling lost.

And it gives a real sense of achievement seeing the difference they can make, as individuals and as part of our organisation. We couldn’t deliver our services without our volunteers. Thank you to everyone who gives their time and experience to supporting our purpose, in helping so many people move forward.

I'm encouraged to see how we continue to develop the relationships and ways of working between local Citizens Advice and national. We are one service dedicated to supporting the most vulnerable people in society and our combined success is measured by how we help people find a way forward together. We're also working as a whole service to focus on equity, diversity and inclusion both for client outcomes and the experiences of our volunteers and staff.

We couldn’t deliver our services without our volunteers. Thank you to everyone who gives their time and experience to supporting our purpose, in helping so many people move forward.

Our service has never been needed more and our ambition and vision needs to continue to develop to meet that need. As a national trustee board we're committed to that goal.

Warren Buckley

Chair

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About Citizens Advice

National offices Local Citizens Advice Witness Service courts

The Citizens Advice service is made up of a network of 258[1] independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales and the national charity. Our role as the national charity is to enable local Citizens Advice to deliver their services and to jointly deliver other services at a national level.

How we deliver our services

The service is delivered by our highly trained people, made up of 16,700 local volunteers, 1,800 Witness Service volunteers, and 7,700 local and 1,000 national staff.

interconnected problems, which have been growing in complexity since the pandemic and fuelled by the cost-of-living crisis. We’re uniquely placed to help them by offering a holistic approach, with our core advice services able to draw on specialised support to help navigate the most complicated circumstances.

Together, we deliver the Witness Service, Pension Wise, the Consumer Service, the Help to Claim service, debt advice funded by the Money and Pensions Service, and Advicelink across Wales, funded by the Welsh Government. We’re also the consumer champion for the energy market and the statutory consumer watchdog for the postal service. People often come to us needing help with several

1 During the financial year 2021-2022, there were 265 independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales. The total number has decreased due to local mergers, though our geographical representation remains the same. The figure of 258 is correct at the date of publication.

Locally, advice is offered from approximately 2,300 locations. Nationally, Citizens Advice is run from 4 administrative offices. The Witness Service is available in all criminal courts across England and Wales[2] .

2 Throughout 2021-2022, we followed government guidance on workplace restrictions, including lockdown easing and Plan B implementation, so there was some disruption to our ability to deliver in-person services at various times.

Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021–2022

Contents Who we helpp in 2021-20 Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021-2022

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We help millions of people every year. In 2021–2022 this included:

40.6 million visits to our website

1.96 million people used our phone service

624 000 , people helped by email

183 000 , people helped face-to-face

176 000 , people helped via webchat

87 000 , witnesses helped through the Witness Service

In total we helped 2.55 million people one-to-one, by phone, email, web chat or in person. Our advice website had over 40.6 million visits and 58 million page views.

In 2021-2022 the number of people turning to the service for advice increased year on year, and was significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.

People are clearly feeling the long term effects of the pandemic. The withdrawal of all government support schemes, in a relatively short time period and in a year of constant uncertainty and changing restrictions, led to continued higher demand for our services. The end of various international pandemic-led restrictions directly resulted in the ongoing energy crisis, in turn driving up inflation and the cost of living.

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We’ve seen the highest number of web visits ever, more people are using our webchat service than ever before, and we started seeing people at face to face appointments again. We’re answering more phone calls than ever—but because so many more people are calling for help, the proportion of calls we can answer has fallen year on year.

Our value to society

Each year, Citizens Advice helps give millions of people the knowledge and confidence to find a way forward. We do this by providing advice, education and support, and influencing policies and practices that affect our clients. We survey thousands of people every month to give us the evidence we need to measure our impact. More details can be found on our website, in our Impact Report .

The impact of our services

6 in 10 people say they feel less stressed, depressed or anxious after speaking to an adviser

75% of clients were helped to solve their problems after contacting a local Citizens Advice in 2021-2022

we deliver £14 of wider economic and social benefit for every £1 spent on the Citizens Advice Service

£717 million saved for government and public services

£4.6 billion our estimated total social and economic value to society

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Financial outcomes for the people we help

For many people who turn to us for help, we look at how we can maximise their income by making sure they’re receiving all of the benefits they’re entitled to.

We follow up with a sample of our clients to record their financial outcomes. The figures below show, when we’ve been able to make a difference to their income, the average gains per person. For example, on average we help people write off £13,059 of problem debt. Where we’ve identified that people should be receiving additional benefits, we help them to claim an additional £6,841 a year. And where people haven’t received their full entitlement, we’ve helped them get an average of £2,135 in back payments.

Average £ per client 2021-2022

£2,135 £6,841 Benefit income gain Benefit income gain (one-off) (ongoing)

£13,059 Debts written off

For many people who turn to us for help, we look at how we can maximise their income by making sure they’re receiving all of the benefits they’re entitled to.

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Contents Our strategy: the future of advice it12ens Advlce Annual Report and Accounts 20 022

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Our Future of Advice strategic framework 2019-2022 set the direction and provided the parameters within which we’ve continued to innovate, improve and adapt to provide people with the help they need.

We consciously developed a strategic framework, as distinct from a fixed strategy, to give us the flexibility to adapt to a rapidly changing world. To keep delivering on our ambitions, we continually transform the way we do things, adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients, keep pace with rapid technological advances, and stay ahead in an increasingly challenging funding environment.

This year we chose to continue the Future of Advice framework for an additional period while we work to refresh and renew our strategic approach. Our next strategy will build on these foundations, and continue to put the people who need our help at the centre. We'll make sure they can access the best services possible, by supporting our local offices to deliver advice in ways that really work for those coming to us for help.

Our vision

You won’t struggle to get help from us

Our services will be available when you need them and you’ll have a great experience—wherever you start your journey, whatever your needs are and wherever you are.

Our service will feel joined up

You’ll access advice quickly and easily through our different services and channels, without having to repeat yourself.

We’ll help you find a way forward, whatever your problem We’ll offer you the resources, tools and expertise to solve your problem. If we can’t help you directly, we’ll signpost you or make a smooth referral to a trusted partner who can give you the advice you need.

You’ll get the level of support you need

If you’re at higher risk of disadvantage, detriment or harm, we’ll take extra steps to make sure you have the appropriate level of support. Whatever situation you’re in, you’ll be informed about the different ways of accessing support and be able to choose the one that works best for you.

You know that we’ll speak up for you

We’ll advocate for changes to government policy and industry practices that are making life harder for you.

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Our ambitions

In our Future of Advice strategic framework, we set ourselves ambitions in 5 key areas: advice, advocacy, technology, sustainability and culture (with a particular focus on advancing equity, diversity and inclusion).

In 2021-2022, we prioritised work to:

We also started dialogues between local and national leaders on some of the big strategic questions that will shape our next strategy, which we’ll continue to develop together as a service through 2022-2023.

Highlights of our progress and achievements are provided below.

Modernisation

Increasing and improving our phones provision Alongside local phone services, we continued to invest in our generalist advice service, Adviceline, in 2021-2022 to build our capacity and improve accessibility, including through funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) which was granted to Citizens Advice during the pandemic:

The pandemic affected how we delivered advice in 2021-2022, as we continued to give remote advice through varying levels of Covid-19 restrictions and workplace guidance. More local Citizens Advice are

delivering remote services in new and different ways, including 38 more offices delivering our Adviceline Single Queue, which is a way for local offices to work together to answer more calls. We also worked flexibly to respond to a rapidly changing external environment, including improving our technology to give the people we help a better customer experience. We appointed Accenture, following a robust procurement process involving 35 suppliers, to help design, build and support a new contact centre and phones platform in partnership with Amazon Web Services. This powerful, responsive remote advice platform is flexible, scalable and affordable with an easy to use interface. Implementation will happen across the 2022-2023 financial year, with migration concluded by February 2023.

Advice on TikTok

We’re reaching people in new and innovative ways through our TikTok channel. Since launching it in 2020, we have quickly grown a following of over 120,000 people. We use the channel to share useful, timely and digestible content—proactively giving people information they may not otherwise have

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known. For example, throughout the energy crisis, our video content explained to millions of viewers what to do if their supplier went bust, where to get support, and advised them on how and why they should submit a meter reading ahead of the price cap changes.

Using TikTok helps us speak directly to young people in a way that works for them. As a result, our brand knowledge amongst under-25s has been steadily increasing—something we’ve been working hard on since finding out that they’re less familiar with Citizens Advice than older generations. In September 2021 we won a Charity Times ‘Best Use of Social Media’ award for our TikTok content.

In 2021-2022, our TikTok advice was viewed 7.2 million times.

The impact of our online advice This year we took a major step forward with our online advice content. We launched a user survey to better understand the impact of our advice and what people planned to do after reading content on

our website. The results highlighted the fundamental role our online content plays, and how integral it is to helping people at their moment of need.

A week after using our online content:

Half of website users said our content helped them to either greatly or completely find a way forward, showing how much value our self-serve advice adds. We want to build on this success and use the data to identify improvements that will make our online advice even better for our millions of users.

As a result of user feedback, we’ve iterated our content for trans people on single-sex services. We’ve redesigned and removed duplication from our hate crime content, to make it easier for the public to access advice to help them with their situation. And we’ve redesigned and removed duplication from across our discrimination content. As a result, we’ve seen improved search results for people looking for advice on discrimination, and better user journeys across our content.

We’ve also shown how quickly we respond to emerging situations. Following the invasion of Ukraine, the UK government created a number of new visa schemes to let Ukrainian citizens enter and stay in the UK. We responded to requests from our local Citizens Advice network to urgently develop advice for the public and advisers to use, and the first page was live within 2 days of starting work. The content was viewed 27,000 times in the first 2 months of publication. The advice on ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme received 90% positive feedback from visitors to the page.

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Wellbeing

We think of wellbeing as ‘how we’re doing as individuals and as a group, and how sustainable that is for the future’.

During the height of the pandemic, we prioritised the wellbeing of our volunteers and staff. On top of our usual occupational health service, we added a range of peer to peer and self-service wellbeing support services, enhanced our national people policies, and invested in a Wellbeing Project Manager to increase capability and resources in this area.

In 2021 we trained and inducted 62 Mental Health First Aiders to support the wellbeing of national staff, and put in place learning, peer support and networking activities to support the Mental Health First Aiders in their roles.

In March 2022 we finalised our national staff wellbeing framework and roadmap, which is based on research, good practice guidance, staff insights and feedback. It sets out our vision for wellbeing at national Citizens Advice and outlines the activities we’ll take to achieve it.

We’re very pleased to report that the work National Citizens Advice has done and is doing on colleague wellbeing has won us Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category at the Employee Experience Awards 2022, and also led to us being named Overall Winners of the awards.

In 2021 we trained and inducted 62 Mental Health First Aiders to support the wellbeing of national staff.

Over 2022-2023, we’ll be focusing on ways of working, leadership needs and our data and governance to make wellbeing a thread that runs through everything we do.

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Citizens Advice is ambitious about advancing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through the work of our service and in our workplace. This year we continued to put into action our social justice approach and delivered concrete steps to challenge the barriers and systemic disadvantage faced by marginalised communities.

2021-2022 outputs included:

To continue to build EDI service-wide, we completed the rollout of our year long Advancing EDI learning programme across the whole Citizens Advice service, launched an EDI Community of Practice for sharing best practice and solving common challenges, and supported our 4 Network Groups (REACH[3] , Disability, LGBTQ+ and Trans and Nonbinary) to grow their membership. We developed our approach to advancing race equity across the service and drove delivery through the creation of our Race Equity Action Group. We also hosted panel discussions and awareness days on a range of EDI topics such as disability inclusion, LGBTQ+ inclusion and race equity. Finally, we improved our EDI data,

including development of a tool showing the issues that bring different groups of clients to our service.

To address workforce equality disparities and advance inclusion for national staff, we initiated key programmes to ensure we have equitable policies and processes in place such as the race equity positive action pilot—starting to report on our disability and ethnicity pay gaps together with the gender pay gap, and beginning a review of our recruitment processes.

We were selected as finalists for a National Diversity Award.

In the next year we’ll continue to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of our services, build EDI capability service-wide, address workforce equality disparities and advance inclusion.

3 Our REACH (Race Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) network group was previously known as the BAME network group.

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Longer term, more stable funding enables us to plan much further into the future, and invest in a more effective and efficient way.

Sustainability

Business development

We continue to work towards securing longer term funding for the whole service, and have made significant progress in moving current nationally secured funding into multi-year agreements, as well as working with 40 local Citizens Advice to bid for £75.3[4] million of locality funding.

Longer term, more stable funding enables us to plan much further into the future, and invest in a more effective and efficient way. At the end of the financial year, almost half of our nationally secured funding is now on agreements longer than 1 year, and we expect that this proportion will rise during the next financial year.

This year, we have:

4 A 188% increase in contract value compared to our 8-year local average

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Income generation

Alongside restricted income, it’s important that we continue to diversify our income for the whole service in order to further enhance our financial resilience. We continue to implement and evolve our service wide unrestricted income generation strategy. This involves building strategic partnerships with private sector organisations, seeking increased funding from Trusts and Foundations, and continuing to test and pilot individual giving activities.

In 2021-2022 we:

These partnerships allowed us to advise over 6,000 people who may not have accessed our services independently—providing ways for us to proactively reach people previously unaware of our services. We secured £669,000 in Trust and Foundations funding, and have a strong pipeline in place for the future. Income included a grant from the Legal Education Fund to support our immigration advice helpline, funding from the British Gas Energy Trust towards the Warmer Wales service, and the Nationwide Foundation extending their funding of our Tenant Voice programme.

We’ve continued to explore individual giving opportunities, through small-scale tests on our website and on Facebook and Instagram. We’re cautiously optimistic that there is an opportunity to incrementally grow our income through direct response campaigns year on year.

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How we’re helping people—our services across England and Wales

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Local services supporting local communities

Local Citizens Advice sit at the heart of communities throughout England and Wales providing advice services tailored to the specific needs of those very communities. A few examples of the type of essential and impactful services that exist in our local Citizens Advice are highlighted here.

Mobile Advice Units—Citizens Advice Sandwell and Walsall

Many local Citizens Advice have responded to the impacts of the pandemic by making their advice mobile. Citizens Advice Sandwell and Walsall have 2 mobile advice units, Cassie and Casper, who together help around 275 people a month. The units are out in the area at various times and days of the week and give advice from venues such as supermarket car parks, Job Centres, food banks and residential estates. The units also provide Wi-Fi access and a welcome computer so people who might previously have used local libraries or internet cafes (many of which have closed since the pandemic) can make use of them for things like applying for benefits.

Social Prescribing and Advice on Prescription — Citizens Advice Blackpool

The link between high quality advice and benefits to mental and physical health are well proven. Citizens Advice Blackpool, amongst many other local Citizens Advice, has built long-term partnerships with

primary care networks (PCNs) and delivers outreach advice across all PCNs in Blackpool. Working directly within PCNs has enabled Citizens Advice Blackpool to create joint pathways, so patients can access advice at the same time as seeing their GP. This holistic service has reduced repeat attendances, improved GP waiting times and saved money in local health services. Building on this success, Citizens Advice Blackpool is also delivering a comprehensive social prescribing service that links people with other local services, activities and organisations that help reduce isolation, improve mental health and foster community cohesion.

Advice First Aid—Citizens Advice Isle of Wight With demand for our services increasing, local Citizens Advice have been finding innovative ways to build on the strengths of their local communities to increase their reach. The Advice First Aid model, delivered by Citizens Advice Isle of Wight amongst others, identifies well-established and respected community leaders and trains them to be adviceliterate, enabling them to appropriately and effectively explore issues and signpost on to the relevant support service or to our online advice. Citizens Advice Isle of Wight has 120 Advice First Aiders, who are working at other local charities and as Town and Parish Councillors and clerks, County Councillors, Scout leaders, Community Pantry volunteers and foodbank supervisors, who signpost people to trusted sources of information. The Advice First Aiders are supported by a local directory of relevant services as well as receiving support from the fully trained Generalist Adviser team.

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Working in partnership with local Citizens Advice we also operate a range of other services that are coordinated nationally and delivered locally. These include services focused on addressing people’s specific needs, such as applying for Universal Credit or help with money and debt, as well as services including Adviceline that provide access to the holistic general advice services run locally.

Adviceline

Adviceline is our generalist phone, chat and email service. Alongside local phone services, it's a gateway to one-to-one advice, providing access to general advice and links into our more specialist services. It’s delivered by local Citizens Advice working across phone, webchat and email and in 2021–2022 delivered 1.6 million contacts. National Citizens Advice funds Citizens Advice Gateshead and Citizens Advice Caerphilly to bring additional capacity to this service, supporting other local Citizens Advice[5] .

Despite supporting 1.6 million contacts, this figure represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of people who need support—with 8 in 10 people struggling to get through. Demand for Adviceline continues to grow and people are calling with more complex and urgent issues, in part driven by the cost-ofliving crisis. As a largely unfunded and volunteerled service, this presents a considerable challenge for us towards our goal of ensuring more people get the advice they need. As we look ahead, we’ll continue to adapt and develop this critical service, working closely with local Citizens Advice to meet increasing and changing needs of our clients, while improving the accessibility of our service.

6 Adviceline calls ‘dealt with’ are defined as calls that have either been answered or progressed once it has reached the service. This includes calls that are forwarded to other services or have reached our voicemail.

1.6 million client contacts

1.4 million calls dealt with[6]

930,000 calls answered

86,000 webchats

48,000 emails

700,000 people supported

470,000

people signposted to other Citizens Advice services

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Help to Claim

Our help has a huge positive impact on people’s lives:

The Help to Claim service supports people in the early stages of a Universal Credit claim, from the application, through to their first correct payment. It’s delivered through local Citizens Advice and across multiple channels to ensure that people can access support in a way that works best for them. In 2021-2022 this included phone, webchat and face-to-face[7] (when Covid-19 restrictions allowed).

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157,000+ 10,000+
people supported face-to-face contacts
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3.2+ million 234,000+ 51,000+
page views on phone calls webchat sessions
the website answered held
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7 Face to face will be no longer available from April 2022 for this service

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Help through Hardship

The Help through Hardship helpline was created in partnership with the Trussell Trust to maximise the income of people in poverty through personalised support, empowering them to avoid financial crisis in the future. Providing advice first is a way to address the underlying causes of destitution—and contribute to the Trussell Trust’s long-term vision to end the need for food banks in the UK. It provides callers with advice on benefits, income maximisation and will issue foodbank vouchers for those who need them. 2021-2022 saw massively increased demand, following the end of Covid-19 support measures (including the Universal Credit uplift) and then price rises, which increased the cost of food and energy. To address this, and supported by the Trussell Trust, we tripled the number of fully trained, dedicated advisers working in local Citizens Advice on the helpline this year within a 5 month period.

The service is continuously evolving—mental health charity Mind joined the partnership from September 2021, so advisers can transfer calls to them if additional support is needed. We also set up a call back service, for people who may benefit from a follow up conversation, to provide further support, signpost or refer in to our other services, like debt advice. We set this new service up within 2 months of identifying the need, during Plan B Covid-19 restrictions.

In 2021 the service won a Charity Times award for ‘Charity collaboration of the year’ in recognition of the strength of the partnership, and the work we did alongside the Trussell Trust to quickly mobilise the helpline in response to the pandemic.

The service is continuously evolving—mental health charity Mind joined the partnership from September 2021, so advisers can transfer calls to them if additional support is needed.

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How our advice helped Sarah[8]

Sarah has multiple health conditions and called the helpline as she couldn’t afford to buy food. She had no money left after paying her carers, who she needs support from several times a day.

Our adviser explored her situation further, to see if there were any underlying issues, and any ways to maximise her income. Sarah had been paying for less time with her carers than she really needed, because she couldn’t afford the hours.

Sarah’s retired, and on State Pension and Attendance Allowance, also receiving Housing Benefit. Despite this support, she still didn’t have enough money to make ends meet. Our adviser spoke to Sarah’s local authority, to arrange a review of her social care financial assessment. The local authority agreed to reassess Sarah’s benefits, which should enable her to have full carer support in place going forward. Sarah was also given a foodbank voucher to help with her immediate need.

We made sure Sarah had a callback from the team, to check on her situation and ensure her needs were being met long term. On this call we confirmed her local authority were checking in daily, and that she no longer needed food support. The adviser made sure she had the Help through Hardship phone number in case she needed us again in future.

8 Names and some details have been changed or omitted to preserve anonymity.

Sarah has multiple health conditions and called the helpline as she couldn’t afford to buy food.

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The impact of our Help through Hardship service

96 738 ,

calls answered

47 963 ,

food bank vouchers issued

£19.2

million is the total estimated financial gain for all callers (where a financial gain was identified)

31 724 ,

people advised

5 391 ,

people were helped to increase their income

89%

of callers found the advice given helpful

88 311 ,

people provided with emergency food

£3 563 ,

is the average estimated financial gain per caller (where a financial gain was identified)

91%

of callers were very or fairly satisfied with the service

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Money and Pensions Debt Advice Project

Funded by the Money and Pension Service (MaPS) we give advice by working with 173 local Citizens Advice and Independent Advice Agencies, 2 Contact Centres and a specialist unit dedicated to the submission of debt relief orders (DRO Unit). People can access the service in a way that works best for them be that face to face, telephone appointments, webchat or email.

In 2021-2022, we had 500 (full time equivalent) advisers, who helped:

What do the people who’ve used our services think?

friend

Pension Wise

The Pension Wise service, funded by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) provides free, impartial guidance for anyone aged 50 or over to help them understand their options for accessing their defined contribution pension savings. We deliver this service across England and Wales working in partnership with 37 local Citizens Advice, as well as in Northern Ireland. Our local offices work hard to improve the accessibility of the service, for example at Citizens Advice Lancashire West, where invaluable appointments are provided to people within the deaf community through three-way video calls with a Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) interpreter.

Working with Lloyds Banking Group Pension Trustee Limited (“LBGPTL”)

In May 2021, following a successful trial, we launched a new partnership with LBGPTL to deliver targeted

guidance to their pension scheme members. Our Pension Guiders are trained to understand the pension schemes so that they can provide effective and relevant guidance to their members with defined contribution benefits. We also report on the number of appointments that we deliver to their members, so that LBGPTL can monitor employee engagement with pensions guidance. In return, we’ve been able to raise awareness of the Pension Wise service across a large number of pension scheme members. LBGPTL has provided excellent feedback on the service provided by Pension Wise.

Action on Gambling Harm

In 2021-2022 we started a 3 year funded partnership with GambleAware, who support our work to mainstream awareness of gambling harm across local Citizens Advice. The first year of this project saw 18 local Citizens Advice join a pilot to develop our learning and advice content, plus make considered changes to how we collect data in Casebook (our case management system) to best understand the nature of gambling harm among

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the people we help. The programme will be rolled out to all local offices over the next 2 years with all advisers being trained to identify gambling harm and how we can best help people living with it— both people who gamble, and those worried about or affected by someone else’s gambling.

Adviser Immigration helpline

The Adviser Immigration Helpline re-launched in September 2021 with new funding from The Legal Education Foundation. The helpline[9] , along with online resources and training modules, supports local Citizens Advice and their advisers to build their capacity, knowledge and confidence so they can help people find a way forward with migration issues.

In the 7 months from September 2021 to March 2022, the helpline has dealt with over 2,000 calls. More than 240 local Citizens Advice offices have used the helpline to gain advice on the best course of action for the people they’re helping.

Main issues:

Consumer Service

The Consumer Service is a helpline giving advice and information to people with problems or issues with goods and services. People calling us receive practical advice on relevant consumer legislation and the steps they can take to resolve an issue.

The service collects data which is shared with trusted enforcement agency partners, to inform enforcement activity and provide more background information to people calling for help.

The service also includes energy advice, helping people on energy related matters. This is funded by

a levy on energy companies which is administered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The service is funded by BEIS overall, and is available for people living in England and Wales. It’s delivered by approximately 160 advisers across 8 local Citizens Advice[10] and 2021-2022 saw unprecedented levels of demand due to the emerging energy market crisis:

To meet this increase in demand we supported local Citizens Advice to introduce additional capacity, including 4 dedicated energy web chat advisers, giving people another channel to reach us on. We also added a new team of 5 full time equivalent (FTE) energy advisers at Citizens Advice North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, one of our main delivery partners for this service.

9 The helpline is delivered by RCJ Advice and supported by Citizens Advice Bury and Bolton.

10 The local offices delivering the Consumer Service are Citizens Advice Caerphilly, Citizens Advice Cardiff and Vale, Citizens Advice Gateshead, Citizens Advice Lindsey, Citizens Advice Manchester (who sub grant some of the service to Citizens Advice Sheffield in a partnership), Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent, and Citizens Advice Torfaen.

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We launched a pilot with Vodafone, which helps people to make direct contact with the dedicated complaints teams at Vodafone who can more quickly and effectively resolve their issues.

The service continues to enjoy a good and productive relationship with enforcement partners:

97%

said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the support we provide them

Scams Action

The Scams Action service provides support to people at risk of being scammed, or who’ve been scammed. The service focuses on helping people with issues relating to online scams (including any scam with some online element). Major events like the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crisis result in new waves of tailored scam activity, which are increasing year on year. Scammers mimic official schemes like vaccination programmes, energy rebates or government funded grants to steal people’s money or personal information. They take advantage of people’s concerns over the cost of living to coerce them into sharing their details online, or physically target people living alone.

Aims of the Scams Action service:

How the Scams Action service helped people this year

29 375 , cases (some with multiple contacts)

63 765 ,

users of our online Scams Helper tool

593 313 ,

users of our scams web content

8 in 10

people said they’d use the service again if they needed to, or recommend to others

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How we helped people this year:

We’ve worked with the Financial Conduct Authority and UK Finance to run campaigns, including on Whatsapp and TikTok, to promote awareness of scams and our Scams Action service. We were invited to join the Joint Fraud Taskforce, a partnership between the private sector, government and law enforcement to tackle fraud collectively and to focus on issues that have been considered too difficult for a single organisation to manage alone. It’s the key oversight body for tracking progress against the Home Office Fraud Action Strategy.

Witness Service

Supporting witnesses to give their best evidence

The Witness Service provides face-to-face and virtual independent support for witnesses giving evidence in all criminal courts in England and Wales. Throughout the changing demands of the second year of the pandemic, we continued to help and support witnesses, with 92% of witnesses saying we helped them to feel safer. The pandemic added an extra layer of concern to the already worrying and stressful experience of giving evidence, so our work has never been more necessary.

We’ve continued to adapt our service to champion accessibility and inclusivity, modernise our processes and give people the best quality help we can, and we’ve achieved the Victims Choice Quality Mark, which recognises the positive outcomes we deliver for witnesses.

What witnesses we’ve helped say:

In 2021-2022, we:

96%

95%

said they were said we met all or most of their satisfied or very satisfied with needs, and 92% the service they said our service received from us made them feel safer

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Wales/Cymru

In addition to our services across England and Wales, we offer specific services in Wales as a devolved nation.

Partnerships

In 2021-2022, we continued to establish partnerships across Wales to reach out to people who need help and advice most. We delivered training sessions to partners and the public to raise awareness of the impact of advice. Partners included British Red Cross, Carers Wales, Disability Wales, and a range of organisations supporting racially minoritised communities, including Travelling Ahead, Ethnic Youth Support Team (EYST) and Bawso. We've also continued to share our policy work like survey results and reports on No Recourse to Public Funds with partners to deepen the relationship and provide an opportunity to support with our research and policy asks.

Wales-specific Funded services:

In October 2021 we secured additional

investment to continue delivering advice services specifically tailored to EU citizens in Wales to the end of September 2022

In November 2021 we secured confirmation of funding for Advicelink, our national advice phone service in Wales, to the end of 2024

In March 2022 we secured new investment into Wales-wide energy advice services for the years 2023-2025 at £1.7million

pilot scheme

We ran a 6-month pilot scheme, with Welsh Government funding, to explore the long-term benefit of early advice interventions for people in financial need who had approached the Discretionary Assistance Fund for emergency financial support

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Advocacy highlights

We’re a voice for the people we help. Alongside helping people overcome problems in their lives—we then join up this lived experience, through our data, to understand systemic problems in society and find imaginative policy solutions.

No other organisation can do this as well as us. And it creates a powerful cycle: our advice informs and magnifies the impact of our policy work, which helps to address the root causes of the problems people come to us with.

The second year of the pandemic, and the escalating energy and cost-of-living crisis, brought growing worries and challenges for many people. As spiralling costs across many day-to-day goods and services started to bite, the biggest impact was shouldered by those on the lowest incomes. Speaking out and influencing decision makers, to make a real difference to people’s lives, had never been more important.

An important element for our advocacy work this year was better understanding the impact of government policies and business practice on all communities, but with a particular focus on marginalised groups. Key to this was effective partnership working across local and national Citizens Advice.

Consumer

We built on our strong reputation for successfully advocating on behalf of consumers, achieved through our work on the ‘loyalty penalty’ which exposed how firms overcharged their existing customers for essential, day-to-day services like post and insurance. We welcomed the implementation of new rules by the Financial Conduct Authority to ban this practice in motor and home insurance, which is expected to save consumers £4.2 billion over the next decade.

To follow on from this work, we looked at other areas where consumers may be overcharged without realising. Using data from 18,000 people who approached us for debt advice and conducting ‘mystery shopping’ around the country, we

identified that many people of colour may be paying more than £250 a year more for their car insurance than white people. Our research has started an important debate and we will keep up our call for action to be taken.

At a time where budgets are being squeezed, we'll continue to use insights from our clients to find and address where they’re being overcharged or can’t afford to access essential services.

Post

Influencing Ofcom’s review of postal regulation has been a major focus this year. We built pressure around the price of mail redirections which led to Royal Mail making significant improvements to their discount scheme for those on the lowest incomes. We also published our first ever parcels league table, which drew on a wide range of data sources, including from our consumer helpline. The league table secured significant media coverage, which helped persuade Ofcom to consult on strengthening consumer protections in the parcels market.

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Energy

We were at the forefront of protecting customers as 30 energy companies failed, liaising with failed companies, Suppliers of Last Resorts, Ofgem, and securing protections for particularly vulnerable customers. By appealing price control decisions we successfully argued against energy network companies who were looking for customers to fund billions in extra profits. Throughout the year’s energy challenges, we continued to advocate for a fair and just transition to net zero. As a result the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced new protections for consumers on heat networks and that Citizens Advice will be appointed as their statutory consumer advocate.

Cost of living

In August 2021 when Ofgem announced an increased price cap, we began sharing evidence about how households might struggle. As predictions for the April 2022 energy price cap soared, we secured widespread media coverage using our unique data to show the immediate impact the cost-of-living crisis was having. We kept

up the pressure, continuing to shine a spotlight on those affected the most, from highlighting the percentage of benefit payments being spent on energy bills, to showing trends in the demand for our advice on how to manage spiralling costs. As the crisis evolved we continued to offer expert policy analysis on how to fix it to decision-makers across energy and welfare. Our efforts directly contributed to a series of government announcements that offered increasing support. February 2022’s Spring Statement with a package of support of grants and loans worth £9 billion was followed by a further package worth £15 billion announced in May 2022. We continue to share insights from the frontline with high-profile media and decision-makers, to raise awareness of the issues affecting people’s lives and to secure further support.

Welfare

As we emerged from the pandemic, we pushed for change to ensure Universal Credit delivers on its promise of helping people into work. We also challenged rules around childcare payments and work allowances that hinder rather than help people into employment.

By appealing price control decisions we successfully argued against energy network companies who were looking for customers to fund billions in extra profits.

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There are over a million people living in the UK barred from accessing the welfare state. Our report ‘ How do I survive now ’ set out the reality of life for people living with no recourse to public funds and we successfully pushed to ensure they were included in the government’s cost-of-living support package.

Wales

We continued to advocate effectively on behalf of people across Wales to the Welsh government. We successfully argued for flexibility in the Discretionary Assistance Fund to help people during the pandemic and beyond. Our recommendations on supporting thousands of low income households with the cost of living were accepted, including ensuring all people receiving Council Tax Reduction are eligible for the Cost of living Payment, and extending Winter Fuel Support to those eligible for Pension Credit. We continue to build a credible, sustained presence in the media in English and in Welsh.

Debt and money

This was the year the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry exploded—yet remained unregulated.

Our analysis made headlines highlighting the risks of this super-slick credit product, finding that almost 40% of us had ended up using BNPL by accident and 1 in 10 ended up facing debt collectors. Our insights helped shape the proposals brought forward in the government’s consultation on regulation.

As the cost-of-living crisis grows, we’re continuing to push for urgent regulation of the sector— showing that 1 in 12 have now used BNPL for essentials like food or bills, without proper protections being in place.

Housing

Private renters faced huge challenges during the pandemic—a third lost income, many ran down their savings, and unlike home-owners, very few had the option of a payment holiday.

We tracked the impact on renters over time, finding that 1 in 10 renters were in arrears, owing over £900 on average. That would take the typical renter 9 years to pay back.

As record numbers came to us for help with eviction threats, we used our data to push for emergency support.

Together with other organisations, our evidence helped secure an additional £65 million in Homelessness Prevention Grants, offering a lifeline to help keep people in their homes.

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Our structure, governance and management

Our trustee board sets the vision and gives strategic direction to national Citizens Advice. The members are trustees under charity law and directors of the charitable company.

The usual number of trustees is 12, on 31 March 2022 the number of trustees was 9. During the financial year 2021-2022, 3 trustees' terms of office came to an end and recruitment for the trustee vacancies is ongoing and will conclude in 2022-2023.

There are 6 formal trustee board meetings each year, along with other meetings and events, to help trustees shape the organisation’s strategic direction and develop as a team. Our Chief Executive, working with the executive team, is responsible for delivering the strategy and for day-to-day operations.

The trustee board is committed to high standards of corporate governance and complies with the principles and practices set out in the Charity Governance Code.

Our trustees

Warren Buckley (Chair) is Retail Director at Thames Water and responsible for all customerfacing activity. Previously, he was Global Head of Contact Centres for HSBC Plc. Warren is also Chair of the chairs’ committee.

Lucinda Bell (Treasurer) is currently a nonexecutive director of Derwent London, Man Group and Crest Nicholson. She is also Chair of the audit and risk committee at Man Group and chair of the audit committee at Derwent London. Lucinda is Chair of the audit and risk committee and a member of the chairs’ and people committees.

Jabbar Sardar (Deputy Chair) is Global HR director for BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC which oversees TV production, channels and distribution globally. Jabbar is a member of the equality committee and a member of the chairs committee.

Dr Andrew Stephenson is Equiniti’s Chief People Officer. Andrew has a doctorate in Business Administration and a master's degree in Strategic Human Resource Management. He is also a non-executive director of MyCSP Limited. Andrew retired as trustee, Chair of the people committee and a member of the chairs’ committee on 23 December 2021.

Ann-Marie Harkin is the Executive Director for Audit Services at Audit Wales. She has won both the Leading Wales 'Women in Leadership' award and the CIPFA Wales 'Public Finance Professional of the Year' award. Ann-Marie is Chair of the Cymru advisory committee and a member of the audit and risk and chairs’ committees.

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Ashok Vaswani is Global Head of Consumer Banking and Payments for Barclays UK, overseeing the execution of plans for the Group’s consumer banking and cards and payments businesses, in the UK and internationally. He is also a board member of Pratham UK, the Clearing House, USA and the London Stock Exchange Group. Ashok retired as a trustee and member of the audit and risk committee on 14 April 2022.

Barbara Shaw has more than 20 years of experience working in the Citizens Advice service. She served as Chief Executive of both Citizens Advice West Oxfordshire and Citizens Advice Banbury. Barbara is currently a director of CP Shaw Ltd, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Governor of Enstone School and a member of the Oxfordshire County, Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Barbara retired as a trustee and member of the technology committee on 9 September 2021.

Finola McDonnell joined the Financial Times in 2018 as Chief Communications and Marketing Officer. A member of the FT Group executive board, Finola oversees global communications, brand management, commercial marketing and partnerships and events.

Previously, she worked for US news outlet CNBC, holding the position of Vice President of International Communications and Marketing. Finola is a member of the technology committee.

Jonathan Mogford is Director of Policy at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regional Agency. During 2021-2022 Jonathan worked full-time as the Senior Responsible Owner at the Department of Health and Social Care’s Borders and Managed Quarantine Service. He is also Vice-Chair at Citizens Advice Wandsworth. Jonathan is Chair of the equality committee and a member of the chairs’ committee.

Mark Haysom is an author. He previously had a 30-year career in newspapers, rising to Managing Director of Mirror Group. He later held the role of Chief Executive of the large government agency the Learning and Skills Council. He has served on the boards of a number of charities dedicated to overcoming poverty and disadvantage and was Chair of Phoenix Futures. Mark retired as a trustee and member of the audit and risk committee on 7 February 2022.

Rolande Anderson has had a wide-ranging senior career in government and now works as an associate at the College of Policing and is an Independent Panel Member for Public Appointments. She is Vice-Chair of Governors at London Metropolitan University and a trustee of St Mungo’s. Rolande retired as a trustee and member of the equality committee, chairs’ committee and Chair of the trustee liaison group on 14 April 2022.

Will Cavendish is Arup’s Global Head of Online Services and Leader of the London-based Advanced Digital Engineering Group. Will has also served as a World Bank economist, has lectured at Oxford University and Imperial College and has a doctorate in economics. He is an investor in BetterSpace, a mental health start up company. Will is Chair of the technology committee and a member of the chairs’ committee.

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Trustee committees

The following committees support the trustee board in its work:

Audit and risk committee

Advises the trustee board on risk management, internal controls, internal and external audit and financial reporting. This committee has 3 independent co-opted members.

Chairs’ committee

Acts as a sounding board for the Chair of the trustee board in carrying out their responsibilities. This includes the planning of the board’s agendas and shaping and agreeing the board’s business. The committee is also responsible for trustee recruitment.

Cymru advisory committee

Advises the board on matters relating to Welsh policy, public affairs and equality issues, as well as on strategy development and business planning in the Welsh context. The committee also carries a brief to assure the board that we are meeting our duties under current Welsh language legislation.

Equality committee

Gives expertise and guidance on equity, diversity and inclusion to the board and the service, making sure promoting equity and tackling discrimination for clients is at the heart of our advice and policy work. This committee has 2 members that represent the local Citizens Advice network and 3 independent co-opted members.

People committee

Supports the trustee board through its oversight of Citizens Advice national people strategy, including inclusive employer priorities, and ensures that the policies and practices associated with the people strategy are consistent with organisational behaviours and culture. It also monitors and provides feedback on our pay and reward strategy and advises the Chair on the appointment, appraisal and pay of the Chief Executive and executive directors. This committee has 2 independent coopted members.

Technology committee

Responsible for helping to shape, monitor and give feedback on the technology strategy. This committee has 1 member that represents the local Citizens Advice network and 2 independent co-opted members.

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Recruitment, induction and training of national trustees and committee members

We recruit trustees and committee members through an open, competitive process. We use national media, recruitment agencies and our network to find talented individuals who have the skills and perspectives we need to provide good leadership and make sound decisions.

During 2021-2022, we recruited 3 new independent and 1 local Citizens Advice committee member to the equality committee, 1 new independent committee member to the people committee and 1 new independent committee member to the technology committee. Recruitment for the trustee vacancies is ongoing and will conclude in 2022-2023.

Trustees can serve for up to 2 consecutive terms of 3 years, but must then step down. A trustee who holds office as Chair, Deputy Chair or Treasurer may not hold office in that capacity for more than 6 consecutive years, but at the end of that period a Deputy Chair or Treasurer may be appointed as Chair. No trustee may hold office for more than 12 consecutive years. After the end of this period, 2 further years must pass before any former trustee may be re-appointed.

New trustees and committee members receive a full induction, when they meet the Chair, agree their role and meet key members of national Citizens Advice staff. Inductions are tailored to meet individual needs and interests. Trustees and committee members are unpaid volunteers, but are reimbursed for reasonable expenses which has been £nil owing to all meetings being held remotely.

Public benefit

The trustees confirm they have referred to the information contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the aims and objectives of Citizens Advice, in planning activities and setting policies and priorities for the year ahead. Our charitable objects:

The main activities undertaken to further our charitable purposes for public benefit are to provide the advice people need for the problems they face and to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.

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Section 172 (1) statement

The trustees act in good faith to make decisions, the outcome of which they consider will be most likely to promote the success of the charity for the benefit of its charitable purposes as a whole, both in current periods and in the long term.

In discharging their duties above, the trustees carefully consider, amongst other matters, the impact on and interests of clients, volunteers, staff, funders and suppliers, and factor these into their decision-making process.

Clients

The trustees put considerable time, effort and resources into understanding and responding to the needs of our clients, which are reflected in the Future of Advice strategy and our response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Volunteers and staff

Trustees receive information on staff physical and mental wellbeing and are committed to promoting a healthy workforce. They support the current work to build an inclusive culture and, as such, are committed to attracting and retaining diverse, high-calibre talent which volunteer and staff development helps support.

Senior leaders have engaged with staff to hear staff voice on key organisational developments, change and decisions through a number of mechanisms, including all staff Townhalls, staff conference, directorate meetings, our staff community platform Workplace and our quarterly staff survey.

Funders

The trustees closely monitor our funder relationships and receive regular reports on how we are meeting funder requirements. Our ‘impact’ section and our ‘services across England and Wales’ section of this report demonstrate how we’re providing services that deliver a high valuefor-money offer for our funders.

Suppliers

The trustees have established procedures to ensure that external suppliers are individually verified to ensure they meet with health and safety, regulatory and financial security standards required by the Charity.

Community and the environment

The Charity recognises the importance of its environmental responsibilities and has measures in place to monitor and control its impact on the local environment and its compliance with any regulatory environmental standards. The Charity seeks to implement policies aimed at reducing any potential harmful environmental impact of its activities. See the 'energy disclosures' section for more details.

Standards and conduct

The Charity has various policies regarding ethical standards and the conduct of business.

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Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

The trustees are responsible for preparing the annual report and the financial statements. Company law requires trustees to prepare statements for each financial year, to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group—as well as the incoming resources and application of resources—including the income and expenditure of the charity for that period. Trustees must:

The trustees are responsible for ensuring proper accounting records are kept. The records must disclose with reasonable accuracy, at any time, the financial position of the charitable company and the trustees must make sure the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. The trustees are also responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website.

Trustees must safeguard the assets of the charitable company and the group and take reasonable steps to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities:

Delegation of duties

Our scheme of delegation outlines decision-making responsibilities within national Citizens Advice. It lists issues reserved for the board and areas which may be delegated to the executive team. The standing financial instructions form the basis of the delegation of financial functions by the Citizens Advice trustee board to staff. Our procurement policy sets out authority levels for purchasing decisions.

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Executive team

Our executive team is responsible for delivering the trustee board’s vision and for the day-to-day operation of Citizens Advice. The executive directors who served during the reporting period are as follows:

Chief Executive

Dame Clare Moriarty (from 26 April 2021)

Executive Director of Operations Michele Shambrook

Alistair Cromwell (until 25 April 2021), Deputy Chief Executive (from 26 April 2021 - 30 September 2021)

Executive Director of People Angela Buxton (from 1 November 2021)

Interim Executive Director of Commercial

Andrew Seager

Interim Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation Maz Hamilton (from 21 March 2022)

Executive Director of Advice and Advocacy James Plunkett

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Our people

Our colleagues remain passionate about the work we do and it’s their dedication that powers everything we’re able to achieve. We’ve continued to invest in our people so they can reach their full potential and so we can be the kind of employer that people aspire to work for.

Wellbeing

The pandemic put wellbeing to the forefront of the agenda and in 2020-2021 we were quick to respond by offering additional leave for carers, personal wellbeing days and more. We built on this work in 2021-2022 by enhancing our capacity and capability in wellbeing expertise so we could deliver strategic and impactful interventions. This included launching an organisation-wide Mental Health First Aider programme and finalising a wellbeing framework and roadmap. You can read more about our wellbeing work on page 18.

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

We understand the importance of being able to bring your full self to work and having an employer that actively challenges disparities and barriers to inclusion. We’re proud of the diversity we have and seek to better reflect the communities that we exist to help.

Our national team profile shows that 71% of colleagues are women and 29% men. 24% of employees have identified themselves as being disabled or having a long-term health condition and 14% are People of Colour. 14% are Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual and 0.3% are Trans or Non-Binary.

In 2021 we undertook a number of initiatives to challenge disparities, become more diverse and ensure we’re an inclusive place to work. This includes continuing to roll out our EDI learning programme and improving how we collect and use diversity data. We also prepared to report for the first time on our disability and ethnicity pay gaps together with our gender pay gap. We supported our staff network groups (REACH[11] , Disability,

LGBTQ+ and Trans and Non-binary) to contribute to advancing EDI across the service and growing their membership. You can read more about our EDI work on page 19.

Looking ahead, the development of our organisation’s forward strategy will support us in building on what we’ve done to date to make Citizens Advice a great place to work, to build our leadership strength, inclusion and collaboration. Underpinned by the 4 defined pillars of our people strategy, which remain as set out below:

• [An inclusive and collaborative culture] enabling a purpose-driven, people-focused, collaborative and transparent culture. Building a diverse and inclusive organisation that is representative of the communities we serve. Working together as 1 team attracting the best talent and supporting and developing all our people

11 Our REACH (Race Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) network group was previously known as the BAME network group

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developing visible leaders who embody and demonstrate inclusive leadership, being role models for our culture and behaviours and being clear about leaders' responsibilities to their teams

investing in learning to ensure everyone has the right skills to deliver, working to attract the best talent and maximising our employer brand and values

• [A fully-enabled people directorate] delivering a high-quality people service for all teams, supported by strong data and analytics to enable evidence-based decision making in our structure, governance and management

Remuneration policy

We evaluate all new roles using our industry-standard job evaluation scheme, allocating roles to grades. To attract the right talent, we benchmark against the mid-point between lower quartile and market median salaries. All national Citizens Advice employees are

paid more than the Living Wage and, for those who live in the capital, the London Living Wage.

Executive team remuneration is the responsibility of the trustee board’s people committee, which sets pay levels on the basis of job evaluation outcomes and comprehensive benchmarking.

Effective from 1 April 2022 all full-time staff, including

key management personnel (except recent joiners), received a flat rate pay increase of £1,400 per annum (part-time were paid pro-rata). This produced percentage increases of around 6.5% for our lowest paid employees to 1.3% for the highest paid.

In line with the legislation, we calculate and publish our annual gender pay gap data in April each year. Our mean gender pay gap in April 2021 was 15.9% (2020: 13.5%) and median 16.1% (2020: 15.9%).

Gender identity is often assumed from the sex assigned at birth. However, gender is more complex than ‘men’ and ‘women’. We must, however, follow the current statutory requirements for gender pay gap reporting, so gender pay must be reported in a

binary way, identifying the pay gap between men and women. As a result, our report doesn’t differentiate pay data for colleagues with other gender identities. There are many people who don’t fit into these binary categories, for example people who are nonbinary or intersex. We also recognise that a person’s sex or gender does not always align with the sex or gender they were assigned at birth.

Our most recent gender pay gap report (GPGR) showed our median pay gap had widened marginally, by 0.2%, to 16.1%. This median pay gap continues to be heavily skewed because of the gender split of colleagues in our Witness Service which account for 25% of our workforce (nearly 90% female), where the nature of the work tends to be at the lower end of our pay scale. The primary reason our pay gap has widened over the last 12 months flows principally from the difference in median and mean pay of new recruits in the year to April 2022.

We continue to have a progressive pay approach, so those on lower pay receive a larger percentage increase compared to those on higher salaries.

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This will help us to narrow our pay gap. We’ve seen a year-on-year increase in the number of women joining our relatively highly-paid technology and digital teams. We now have a team with 46% women, up significantly over the last 3 years.

We’re continuing work to attract a diverse workforce into senior leadership roles and developing a market salary benchmarking policy to help ensure our pay policy remains effective and objective.

Volunteers

Through the instability of the second year of the pandemic, volunteers have continued to be vital in enabling Citizens Advice to help people find a way forward.

We know that it’s been a difficult period for our volunteers, with the challenges of Covid-19 restrictions, changes to advice settings and other adaptations made necessary by the pandemic, including remote working. Over this time their professionalism has shone through, and we’re grateful

for their support and their continued commitment to the people we help. Whatever their role and wherever they carry it out, we thank all our volunteers for their dedication, skills, energy and support to the service. We couldn't do what we do without them.

As well as giving advice and helping witnesses, volunteers have continued to support the service in other roles—as trustees, undertaking research and campaigns, fundraising and providing general administration. Volunteers have also increasingly been involved in community based roles, for example delivering signposting services in local food banks or promoting our services in the community.

Recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of volunteers is increasingly challenging for many of our services. We recognise that our traditional model of volunteering, which requires a significant time commitment, creates barriers for many potential volunteers and is potentially at odds with the external trends we’re seeing in volunteering. We understand that offering remote and more flexible volunteering opportunities can open the possibility of attracting more people, including those with caring

responsibilities or disabilities. We're committed to exploring new models of volunteering to help attract more volunteers and ensure that volunteers from all backgrounds and walks of life can get involved.

Organisationally, the national volunteering team underwent change and expansion, with the appointment of a new Head of Volunteering, a new Volunteering Development Officer, and a Volunteer Coordinator for Income Generation, supporting our corporate volunteering offer. The team has now moved into the People Directorate, and sits within the People Experience Team.

Volunteering in the Witness Service

As with local offices, volunteering in the Witness Service over this year was shaped by its context— the emergence from lockdown and the easing of Covid-19 safety measures. As most of the support we provide to witnesses can’t be carried out remotely, many volunteers had been out of court for up to 12 months. This absence led to many choosing to step away from volunteering. The resulting drop in volunteer numbers meant that recruitment was a priority over this period.

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Our structure, governance and management

To support recruitment, a temporary Volunteering Area Manager role was created, with 1 such role per region. This led to a number of improvements, streamlining and harmonising the recruitment process, and introducing improved interview questions.

A new volunteer management system was implemented with the intention of improving our volunteer data, reducing administrative tasks for our team leaders, and offering a more efficient experience for our volunteers. The system’s functions have been customised and piloted over the second half of this year, to ensure that technical and real world processes (from volunteer application through to leaving the service) are fit for purpose.

What our volunteers say

MD, Generalist adviser, Citizens Advice Newcastle

Volunteering allows me to help people like me, and I am gaining expertise on law and immigration. Connecting with people is very important, as is supporting my own community. Being an adviser helps me understand social issues, and to have the confidence to speak up. Through volunteering I have written many articles and spoken at conferences about asylum seeking and trafficking. I even won an award [the Covid Acts of Kindness Community Award].

As Citizens Advice volunteers, we serve the community to improve things for everyone—including ourselves."

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What our volunteers say

Stuart, Witness Service volunteer, Nottingham Crown Court

"I began volunteering with the Witness Service in September 2013, having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in the summer of 2012. I was unable to return to my trainee accountant job due to the impact of my condition. At 29, I did not want to effectively retire so young, so I decided to look into volunteering.

I enjoy feeling like I still have a purpose, which I had lost after my MS diagnosis and inability to return to work. I have experienced depression at various points in my life—volunteering has helped me to have a reason to carry on, when at times I couldn’t see the point of doing so.

It gives me a sense of achievement to help people through what can be an extremely difficult and upsetting time. When someone has given their evidence and thanks you for the support you’ve provided, it really gives you a sense of doing something good."

"I enjoy feeling like I still have a purpose, which I had lost after my MS diagnosis and inability to return to work."

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Risk and internal controls

Our trustees are responsible for the effective management of risk and for making sure that internal controls are in place and operating as designed.

The audit and risk committee and the trustee board conducted their annual review of our risk management strategy. Throughout the year, risk owners regularly reviewed directorate and strategic risks to assess the likelihood, impact and appetite for each risk, the plans for managing them and the adequacy of those plans.

We operate a robust system of internal financial controls which is regularly reviewed by management and internal audit, and compliant with Charity Commission guidance and good practice. The executive team and trustee board review and agree on budgeting systems and financial reports.

Internal audit plans are informed by an analysis of the organisational risk profile. The audit and risk committee keeps a central record of all audit recommendations and monitors progress.

On a quarterly basis, the audit and risk committee and trustee board assess the principal risks facing Citizens Advice.

As a result of the pandemic and with the intensification of the cost-of-living crisis, some risks are increasingly live issues. Our key risks and issues, along with the trustee board’s plans to mitigate and manage them, are set out below.

People

Risks and issues

We fail to attract, recruit and retain the volunteers and staff we need to develop and deliver the range of services we offer.

Mitigation and management

We are operating in a highly competitive labour market landscape comprising high turnover and vacancies. We are particularly affected by shortages of particular skills, especially in technology, and by the changing profile of volunteers.

We have a range of controls in place including:

Planned mitigations for 2022-2023 include:

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Service delivery

Risks and issues

We cannot continue to meet rising demand within available capacity, whilst delivering a quality service that meets changing client needs.

Mitigation and management

During 2021-2022, we continued to see demand for our services rise. For instance, we received a million more calls to our national phone lines and funded services (4.7 million, up from 3.7 million in 2020-2021). We also did more work per client— more issues, more phone calls and more emails —and clients’ problems became more complex and urgent. However, our capacity to meet this demand was limited by available funding and recruitment and retention challenges.

We have a range of mitigations in place including:

mobilised a new benefits checking service in Wales and a new energy advice project for vulnerable households)

Planned mitigations for 2022-2023 include:

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Risks and issues

We fail to ensure our advice is accessible for all and can’t create an inclusive culture and more diverse workforce.

Mitigation and management

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) remains a key priority and we have a wide range of mitigations in place including:

For 2022-2023, we have once again made EDI a priority in our business plan, focusing particularly on improving inclusive access, EDI capability and workforce disparities.

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Financial sustainability and resilience

Risks and issues

Ongoing funding pressures locally and nationally mean our financial resilience is threatened.

Mitigation and management

This year, we again successfully maintained existing funding and secured new funding but continue to face challenges in relation to our longer term funding sustainability.

Our current and planned mitigations include:

Digital transformation

Risks and issues

During 2021-2022, we continued work to replace our legacy systems with a more flexible architecture and to better align our funding model with our delivery model to ensure that we can sustain longterm investment in platforms to underpin our frontline remote advice delivery.

Risks and issues

The bringing together of all of our products and platforms under a single Head of Product has been successful in enabling us to set out a clear product strategy to support the organisation’s future ambitions.

Key elements of investment have been protected through 2022-2023 budget decisions to enable us to:

Strategy and transformation

Risks and issues

We don’t have the right capability in place to develop our strategy and make the necessary changes to our ways of working.

Mitigation and management

In light of the range of changes to ways of working and infrastructure that we need to make to be sustainable and effective as an organisation, during 2021-2022, we mobilised a project to design a new target operating model for the national charity. One key conclusion was the need to enhance our capability and capacity to develop strategy and deliver transformational change.

In 2022-2023, we therefore intend to create a new strategy and transformation function to support the organisation to plan, prioritise, transform and execute in a strategic way, ensuring a high performing, innovative and data-led organisation and service.

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Pension liability

Risks and issues

The national charity is the principal employer in a defined benefit pension scheme. The deficit in the scheme is significant and there is a risk that it will continue to increase.

Mitigation and management

The last triennial revaluation took place in March 2019 and showed the scheme had an increased actuarial deficit of £68.5 million.

To reduce the risk for the scheme Citizens Advice agreed to increase future annual deficit contributions to £2.11 million per year (from £1.61 million per year) and extend the payment period to 31 March 2037 (from 31 December 2033).

The triennial revaluation is currently underway for 31 March 2022 and will need to be agreed with the Pensions Scheme Trustees and submitted to The Pensions Regulator by June 2023.

The scheme has a professional pension chair, a board of trustees and professional advisers to help mitigate any risks the scheme has.

Cyber security and data protection

Risks and issues

We fail to respond effectively to the increased threat of cyber attacks and aren’t clear enough about how our clients’ data is used leading to data protection breaches.

Mitigation and management

During the year, we have taken steps to significantly bolster our cyber security capacity and capability. Our audit and risk committee receive quarterly reports on cyber security.

Our Data Protection Officer carried out a comprehensive review of our processes and controls around data privacy and we invited the Information Commissioner’s Office to come and talk to trustees and senior leaders.

We have continued to provide regular updates and guidance to volunteers and staff about cyber security and data protection which has included mandatory data protection e-learning.

Our privacy risk management board continues to monitor and learn from data security incidents with support and oversight from the audit and risk committee.

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Energy disclosures

Climate change and Citizens Advice

As an organisation, we recognise the impact of climate change and our responsibility to take action to contribute to the safeguarding of the natural environment for present and future generations. We take steps across a number of our areas of operation to reduce our environmental impact, and to work in the least environmentally harmful way possible.

We’re committed to reducing energy use and carbon emissions in our operations, and to raise awareness of the need to do the same amongst our staff.

Our carbon strategy

Citizens Advice is mainly an office-based organisation. We work to reduce our carbon emissions through a focus on:

working with our landlords on improving energy efficiency and waste reduction

promoting public transport and more sustainable travel use and encouraging video conferencing where appropriate

Office Energy Use

We will continue to work with our landlords to reduce Citizens Advice's share of energy consumption in office buildings.

Both gas and electricity usage have increased this year—mainly due to staff returning to work in the offices. The overall outputs are still below pre pandemic levels however.

Some actions we took during the year to reduce our emissions are:

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Travel

As the figures demonstrate there was a large decrease in travel due to restrictions following the pandemic. Travel related emissions within 20212022 are well above those of 2020-2021, reflecting reduced government policy restrictions on travel. Nevertheless they remain substantially below the pre-pandemic figures, showing that outputs have been kept low by encouraging staff to work in a blended approach and using remote conferencing and online collaboration where possible.

Methodology

Methodology follows best practice and is based on HM Government Environment Reporting Guideline, March 2020. All emissions factors are taken from UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting, 2021 factors.

Emissions are related primarily to our offices, travel and overnight stays at hotels. Citizens Advice national offices are all based in landlord-managed buildings. Depending on whether the property

readings are taken from sub-meters or from the whole building and pro-rated. Travel and hotel emissions are calculated based on information from our suppliers and government guidance on emissions. Flights, trains, and hotel stay are part of the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) Scope 3 category and therefore, by reporting on emissions associated with them, Citizens Advice is going above and beyond the requirements of SECR.

Gas consumption is calculated using pro rata space allocation of the whole of the 200 Aldersgate building.

Building landlords provide the meter readings to Citizens Advice. We have used Carbonxgen, an independent company, to calculate the CO2e with standard UK government methodology and to verify the numbers presented in this report.

Intensity ratio

Due to the diverse range of services offered by Citizens Advice, all of which depend on the dedication of members of staff, the intensity metric of kWh/FTE was chosen.

Greenhouse gas emissions due to UK energy use

----- Start of picture text -----
Emission Tonnes Tonnes Tonnes
Source CO2e CO2e CO2e
19/20 20/21 21/22
Natural gas 25.76 25.34 30.58
combustion
Total electricity 79.91 50.69 52.23
UK travel 324.00 24.90 55.04
- Scope 1 (staff
mileage claims)
- Scope 3 (flights,
rail, and hotel
stays)
Total tonnes 429.67 100.94 137.85
Total CO2e
tonnage per
employee
(intensity ratio) 0.452 0.101 0.137
Total energy 459,741 355,255 350,629
usage kWh kWh kWh
----- End of picture text -----

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Financial review

Understanding Citizens Advice’s finances

The Citizens Advice service is made up of a network of 258 independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales alongside the national charity. Each of our local Citizens Advice charities are separate independent legal entities each with their own board of trustees that are accountable to their beneficiaries for their respective charitable objectives. As such we do not consolidate our accounts and our accounts and the following financial review section of our annual report only includes the results of the national organisation.

Our role as the national charity is to enable local Citizens Advice to deliver their services and to jointly deliver other services at a national level.

Income

In 2021-2022, the total income for the national charity decreased to £153.6 million from £162.6 million in the previous year.

This reflects a decrease in restricted income to £124.8 million (2021: £137.3 million) and in particular the end of the one-off funding of £13.5 million we received for our response to the Covid-19 pandemic from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in 2020-2021.

Total unrestricted income increased from the previous year to £28.8 million (2021: £25.3 million). The most significant unrestricted funding continues to be that provided by BEIS to support our core activities. This increased this year to £25.3 million (2021: £22.3 million).

In 2021-22, the total income for the national charity decreased to £153.6 million from £162.6 million in the previous year.

The chart on the next page shows where our income came from this year.

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Our main sources of income

Restricted

£33.1 million £11.1 million Department for Work and Pensions Ministry of Justice — Help to Claim (2021: £34.7 million) —Witness Service (2021: £10.7 million) £32.0 million £9.8 million Money and Pensions Service Money and Pensions Service (2021: £30.3 million) —Pension Wise (2021: £10.1 million) £16.8 million £11.3 million Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Welsh government (2021: £10.1 million) Strategy—Consumer (2021: £16.4 million) £10.7 million Other income (2021: £11.5 million)

Unrestricted

Income 2021-2022 £153.6 million

£25.3 million

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy—core (2021: £22.3 million)

£3.5 million Other income—unrestricted (2021: £3.0 million)

The 2020-2021 Financial Year is noted as '2021' on this page.

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5-year snapshot of our income and expenditure (£millions)

The majority of our funding is awarded through funding agreements and is restricted to a particular area of activity and relates to a specific financial year. Therefore, where restricted income grows, there will tend to be a corresponding increase in expenditure in the same year. This is reflected in the 5-year snapshot of income and expenditure.

We have seen a period of significant growth over the last few years with our income growing by over 72% from £94 million in 2017-2018 to £163 million in 2020-2021. The growth in income in 2020-2021 was largely as a result of additional one-off funding to support our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst our income fell to £154 million in 2021-2022 it is still our second highest year of income recorded.

Whilst income has risen substantially in recent years as we have taken on delivery of more services, our expectation is that this will remain fairly steady over the next 2 to 3 years. In the coming year we’ll focus on maintaining existing key funding streams, while continuing to look for ways to diversify our income as a service, so that we can continue to meet our charitable objectives and expand and improve our services for the people we help.

----- Start of picture text -----
Income Expenditure
169
163
154
151
139
137
110 109
94 94
2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2201 2021-2022
----- End of picture text -----

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Expenditure against our 4 areas of charitable activity

Delivering information and advice

Expenditure 2021-2022 £151.0 million

Advice and advocacy

Delivering through partnerships

Delivering through partnerships This represents the largest proportion of our expenditure at £95.7 million (2021: £95.1 million). This includes a significant part of the funding to the local Citizens Advice network, which decreased to £84.5 million (2021: £84.8 million) as a result of the overall decrease in income.

Our spending on the direct delivery of information and advice in 2021-2022 was £28.3 million (2021: £35.8 million). This includes the direct delivery of services by Citizens Advice. The main areas of expenditure cover our Consumer Service, the Witness Service and the continued investment in our online and digital services for clients.

Enabling the network

In 2021-2022, we spent £16.1 million (2021: £17.2 million) on this area. This covers our core network support services, information services, systems support, training and quality assurance costs.

Advice and advocacy

Our expenditure in 2021-2022 on advice and advocacy was £9.2 million (2021: £9.2 million). This includes the delivery of our energy and poststatutory duties in line with our agreed work plan, as well as expenditure on policy and influence from our unrestricted funds to support our other key areas of advice work.

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Reserves policy

Restricted funds represent that funding received with specific restrictions as to what it is spent on. The funds carried forward represent that restricted funding where income has been recognised, but where the funds have not yet been spent. Restricted funds total £11.0 million at 31 March 2022. The restricted deficit for the year of £0.1 million (2021: £1.1 million surplus) reflects some funding recognised in the previous year as income, but that was spent in 2021-22.

At Citizens Advice we recognise the importance of investing funds in the growth of the charity, while retaining sufficient levels of available reserves to provide a prudent level of cover to meet future obligations and guard against unforeseen contingencies on a going concern basis.

Reserves in a broad sense represent the total funds held at a point in time, and at Citizens Advice these comprise restricted funds, unrestricted funds and a negative pensions reserve. At 31 March 2022, total funds were £9.7 million as detailed in the below table:

Unrestricted funds represent funding where there is no restriction applied to how the funding is spent. Unrestricted funds total £25.0 million at 31 March 2022. This is split between freely-

----- Start of picture text -----
Reserves held at 31 March 2022 2021
£'m £'m
Restricted reserves 11.0 11.1
Free reserves 18.8 17.7
General funds – designated 4.7 4.7
Designated funds – fixed assets 1.5 1.5
Total reserves excluding pension reserve 36.0 34.9
Pension reserve (26.3) (29.0)
Total reserves 9.7 5.9
----- End of picture text -----

available unrestricted funds of £18.8 million and designated funds of £6.2 million. Designated funds represent those unrestricted funds that have been allocated by the board of trustees for technological investment, with a value of £4.7 million (2021: £4.7 million), and a designated fund reserved for tangible and intangible fixed assets which are equal to the net book value of those assets of £1.5 million (2021: £1.5 million).

The negative pensions reserve as at 31 March 2022 decreased to £26.3 million (2021: £29.0 million) and represents the provision in the accounts for future committed payments to a closed defined benefit pension scheme. At 31 March 2022, the deficit of £26.3 million reflects the agreement to pay £2.1 million annual payments to the closed defined benefit scheme until March 2037. This negative balance will be reduced by the annual contributions over the payment period. The overall liability and the level of this reserve will vary based on the discount rate applicable to future contributions and periodic revaluations.

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Each year, our trustee board reviews our reserves policy and considers the appropriate level of reserves for the organisation to hold. It considers the level appropriate for the current size and complexity of the organisation, the economic environment we’re operating in, the risks we’re currently managing and known investment plans above and beyond annual budgeted costs. Trustees also consider our current risk profile, balancing the need to reflect that risk, while making sure we’re not holding funds unnecessarily at the expense of committing funds to meet our charitable objectives.

As a result of this year’s review, the trustee board, advised by the audit and risk committee and considering Charity Commission published guidance, decided to leave the basis of the reserves policy unchanged. The policy is to hold in free reserves the equivalent of 3 to 6 months’ core operating costs. This means the target range continues to be £10 million to £20 million (2021: £10 million to £20 million).

Free reserves are defined as total unrestricted funds less designated funds. As of 31 March 2022, our free

reserves totalled £18.8 million and so we’re within the target range.

Pensions

National Citizens Advice is the principal employer of a defined benefit multi-employer pension scheme. The other employers in this scheme are a small number of local Citizens Advice offices in London. The scheme was closed to new members and to future accrual in 2008. Each year these employers make contributions to the scheme towards the deficit.

The total deficit of the closed scheme as of 31 March

2022 was £46.6 million, decreasing from £62.1

million in 2021. This movement relates to changes to the actuarial assumptions on the liabilities of the scheme as a whole.

We remain committed to meeting our obligations in relation to the scheme and work closely with the pension scheme trustee board and its advisers. The current deficit recovery period runs to March 2037 with agreed annual pension deficit recovery payments

of £2.1 million. The overall liability and the level of this reserve will be subject to the triennial revaluation of the pension liability and any subsequent change to the agreed repayment plan. The triennial revaluation is currently underway for 31 March 2022 and will need to be agreed with the Pensions Scheme Trustees and submitted to The Pensions Regulator by June 2023.

Citizens Advice operates a defined contribution scheme. New staff are automatically enrolled into the scheme and employer contributions are charged as they are incurred.

Investments

We continue to benefit from a strong cash flow supported by our funders. The total cash balance at the 31 March 2022 was £37.6 million (2021: £38.9 million).

As required in our Memorandum, national Citizens Advice has the power to invest monies not immediately required for its purposes in or upon such investments, securities or property as may be thought fit.

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Citizens Advice’s investment strategy is to manage the charity’s cash flows and investments, controlling the associated risks to maximise income with minimal risk. At the year end all such funds are held as fixed-term cash deposits, notice accounts or immediately available cash and are held in UKbased institutions with strong credit ratings. Where risk or return is not negatively impacted, we hold funds as “green” treasury deposits. Our investment policy is reviewed at least annually.

Grant-making policy

National Citizens Advice awards grants to local Citizens Advice (and other local charities and organisations) in line with our grant requirements with funders to meet the needs of our clients. Funds either come directly from national Citizens Advice for developmental opportunities that enhance our service to clients (including piloting or testing new ways of meeting needs or reaching more people) or as a result of funding awards to national Citizens Advice for specific services. These are then passed on to the local offices for delivery, in a range of ways depending upon the requirements of the specific grants.

In 2021-2022 we developed a more data led approach to our grants, allowing us to be more efficient and transparent about how we choose our delivery partners in the network. The grant application process is published on the Citizens Advice intranet so applicants are aware of the methodology. Evaluators are trained in-house and include members of local Citizens Advice to ensure transparency and objectivity, as well as a clear appeals process. In 2021-2022, £84.5 million in grants has been passed through to the network of local Citizens Advice and other organisations from funding sources including:

Fundraising policy

In 2021-2022, Citizens Advice continued to test and develop fundraising activities. During the year, Citizens Advice did not use professional fundraisers or commercial participants to act on its behalf.

However, in line with our ethics, data security and complaints policies, we did conduct individual giving pilots on Facebook and Instagram between April and September 2021.

We also continued to actively develop longterm partnerships with companies, trusts and foundations to support our strategic aims and longterm sustainability.

We recognise the need to protect vulnerable people and other members of the public from

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undue pressure and any intrusion of privacy. This is reflected in the non-invasive fundraising activities we carried out in 2020-2021.

Given that we expect such activities to continue into the 2022-2023 financial year, we will ensure that, in compliance with our policies and general approach, we continue to protect the public’s interests. We remain registered with the Fundraising Regulator and in compliance with its voluntary regulation scheme, our fundraising policies and practices align with the Fundraising Code of Conduct, in addition to relevant marketing regulations and legislation.

We received 1 complaint related to fundraising during this period.

Going concern

The financial position and performance have been outlined in the financial review. The trustees have assessed our position and concluded that Citizens Advice is well-placed to meet our liabilities as they fall due and to manage the business risks we face.

Our key risks and uncertainties are summarised on pages 50-53, which include securing longer term funding to build our financial resilience. We acknowledge our pension fund obligations and as a result our unrestricted funds deficit. We have a clear strategy to manage the pension deficit, which includes a pension deficit reduction plan which is subject to continued discussion and agreement with the pension scheme trustee board.

Our going concern position is supported by a strong cash flow, sufficient reserves, good relationships with our key funders and a proven ability to retain and secure new services. Our planning and reporting processes, including financial projections and scenario planning, take into consideration the current economic climate (including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic) and its potential impact on our various sources of income and planned expenditure. Furthermore, management accounts for the charity are presented at regular intervals to the trustee board throughout the financial year on progress against budget. Any changes in funding within the year are reflected as soon as practicable and action taken by management to ensure that the charity spends within its available resources.

We have therefore adopted the going concern basis of preparation of these financial statements on the basis that we have concluded there is a reasonable expectation that we have sufficient resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, being at least 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements.

Approval

This annual report of the trustees, under the Charities Act 2011 and the Companies Act 2006, was approved by the board of trustees on 26 July 2022, including approving in their capacity as company directors the strategic report, and is signed as authorised on the board’s behalf by:

Warren Buckley

Chair

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Our funders

Citizens Advice enjoys support from a wide range of funders and we obtain the maximum value for every pound we spend. We'd like to thank all of the organisations that have supported us during 2021-22. We look forward to working with all of you in future years.

Government funders

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Department of Health and Social Care Department for Work and Pensions HM Treasury Home Office Ministry of Justice Welsh government Other public bodies Money and Pensions Service The Insolvency Service

Other Major Funders

Barclays British Gas Energy Trust Competition and Markets Authority Energy Saving Trust E.ON Facebook Gamble Aware JP Morgan Kings College London Legal Education Foundation Money Advice Trust

National Lottery Community Fund Nationwide Foundation NatWest Group Shell Energy Southern Gas Networks OVO (SSE Electricity) Trussell Trust TSB Utility Warehouse Yorkshire Building Society

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Legal and administrative details

Legal status

Advisers

National Citizens Advice is a registered charity and a out in the accounting policies note. The charity also Advisers company limited by guarantee. It is incorporated in has a subsidiary pension trustee company, NACAB the United Kingdom and the registered office of the Pension Trustees Limited. Independent auditor charity is in England. All independent local Citizens BDO LLP Advice are members of the national Citizens Advice 55 Baker Street Registered office charity and there are no other full members. The Citizens Advice London W1U 7EU maximum liability of each member is limited to £1. 3[rd] Floor North Citizens Advice is governed by its Memorandum and 200 Aldersgate Internal auditor Articles of Association as amended in October 2000, London EC1A 4HD Mazars LLP September 2009 and September 2010. Telephone: 03000 231231 30 Old Bailey citizensadvice.org.uk London EC4M 7AU The registered name of the charity is The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. Registered charity number: 279057 Bankers From 6 January 2003, the charity has used the Company number: 1436945 Barclays Bank PLC operating name of Citizens Advice. The charity was 1 Churchill Place incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on Company Secretary London E14 5HP 13 July 1979. Nicola Clarke

Independent auditor

Solicitors

Bates, Wells and

Braithwaite

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE

Lloyds Bank plc

The charity has an active trading subsidiary, Citizens Advice Limited (formerly Advice Services Information Limited). Consolidated accounts have been prepared. The basis of consolidation is set

25 Gresham Street London EC2V 7HN

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Independent auditor’s report to the members of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

Opinion on the financial statements

Basis for opinion

In our opinion, the financial statements:

We have audited the financial statements of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (“the Parent Charitable Company”) and its subsidiaries (“the Group”) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the Consolidated

Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated and Charity Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Independence

We remain independent of the Group and the Parent Charitable Company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

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Conclusions related to

going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group and the Parent Charitable Company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

Other Companies Act 2006 reporting

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Group and the Parent Charitable Company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatement in the Strategic report or the Trustees’ report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

We have nothing to report in this regard.

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Responsibilities of Trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities, the Trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the Group’s and the Parent Charitable Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the Group or the Parent Charitable Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

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Extent to which the audit was capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

As part of designing our audit, based on our understanding of the industry in which the Group operates, we assessed the risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, including how fraud may occur. We considered the Parent Charitable Company’s own assessment of the risks that irregularities may occur either as a result of fraud or error and held discussions to consider whether there was any knowledge of actual, suspected or alleged fraud.

We considered management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including revenue recognition and the risk of override of controls),

and determined that the principal risks were related to posting inappropriate journal entries to manipulate financial results and management bias in accounting estimates. We also considered financial performance, key drivers for performance targets and the risks of non-compliance with other requirements imposed by the Charity Commission or Companies House. We considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the Group’s financial statements.

In addition, the Trustees are subject to many other laws and regulations where the consequences of non-compliance could have a material effect on amounts or disclosures in the financial statements, for instance through the imposition of fines or litigation. We identified the following areas as those most likely to have such an effect: Data Protection and Health and Safety Legislation, compliance with the Companies Act 2006, UK GAAP, FRS 102 Charities SORP and tax legislation.

In order to help identify instances of noncompliance with other laws and regulations that may have a material effect on the financial

statements, we made enquiries of management and Those Charged With Governance about whether the entity is in compliance with such laws and regulations, and we inspected any relevant regulatory and legal correspondence.

Note that auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of Those Charged With Governance and other management, and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence if any.

We also completed the following procedures:

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management to manipulate financial results, for example, through the timing of the recognition of income;

Our audit procedures were designed to respond

to risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, recognising that the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery, misrepresentations or through collusion. There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures performed and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we are to become aware of it.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located at the Financial Reporting Council’s (“FRC’s”) website at https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities . This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the Charitable Company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Charitable Company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charitable Company and the Charitable Company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Jill Halford (Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of BDO LLP, statutory auditor London, UK

15 August 2022

BDO LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (with registered number OC305127).

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Consolidated statement of financial activities

For the year ended 31 March 2022 (Incorporating an income and expenditure account)

----- Start of picture text -----
Note Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
2022 2021 2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Donations and legacies 2 595 535 156 101 751 636
Income from charitable activities:
Grants 3 25,300 22,300 123,904 136,254 149,204 158,554
Delivery of services 1,820 1,478 704 888 2,524 2,366
Training and support 488 503 - - 488 503
Other income:
Other incoming resources 611 468 33 75 644 543
Investment income 13 29 - - 13 29
Total income 28,827 25,313 124,797 137,318 153,624 162,631
Expenditure
Expenditure on raising funds 6 1,519 592 197 125 1,716 717
Expenditure on charitable activities:
Delivering information and advice 6 4,969 4,358 23,321 31,468 28,290 35,826
Advice and advocacy 6 2,471 2,540 6,773 6,679 9,244 9,219
Strengthening the local Citizens Advice network 6 12,845 12,518 3,221 4,634 16,066 17,152
Partnerships 6 4,400 1,771 91,337 93,288 95,737 95,059
Charitable expenditure before pension movements 26,204 21,779 124,849 136,194 151,053 157,973
(Decrease)/Increase in pension deficit 17 (1,203) 11,100 - - (1,203) 11,100
Total expenditure 25,001 32,879 124,849 136,194 149,850 169,073
Net income/(expenditure) 3,826 (7,566) (52) 1,124 3,774 (6,442)
Transfer between funds - 88 - (88) - -
Net movement in funds 3,826 (7,478) (52) 1,036 3,774 (6,442)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 19 (5,151) 2,327 11,042 10,006 5,891 12,333
Total funds carried forward 19 (1,325) (5,151) 10,990 11,042 9,665 5,891
----- End of picture text -----

All activities derive from continuing operations.

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Consolidated and charity balance sheet

At 31 March 2022

----- Start of picture text -----
Note Group Citizens Advice
2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 10 1,240 1,431 1,240 1,431
Tangible assets 11 227 36 227 36
Current assets
Stocks 12 90 - 90 -
Debtors 13 8,202 8,081 8,417 8,285
Cash and cash equivalents 16 37,611 38,920 37,348 38,716
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 14 (10,880) (12,872) (10,832) (12,872)
Net current assets 35,023 34,129 35,023 34,129
Total assets less current liabilities 36,490 35,596 36,490 35,596
Provisions for liabilities and charges 17 (26,825) (29,705) (26,825) (29,705)
Total assets 9,665 5,891 9,665 5,891
Funds
Restricted funds 19 10,990 11,042 10,990 11,042
Unrestricted funds 19 24,960 23,883 24,960 23,883
Pension reserve 19 (26,285) (29,034) (26,285) (29,034)
Total unrestricted funds (1,325) (5,151) (1,325) (5,151)
Total funds 9,665 5,891 9,665 5,891
----- End of picture text -----

The charity has taken exemption from presenting its unconsolidated profit and loss account under s408 of the Companies Act 2006. The unconsolidated surplus for the year is £3.8 million (2021: £6.4 million deficit).

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the trustee board on 26 July 2022 and signed on their behalf by:

Warren Buckley Lucinda Bell Director (Chair) Director (Treasurer)

Company Number: 1436945

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Consolidated statement of cash flows

Year ended 31 March 2022

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Cash flows from operating activities
Net movement of funds 3,774 (6,442)
Adjustments for:
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 94 55
Amortisation of intangible assets 402 367
Interest receivable (13) (29)
(Increases) in stock (90) -
(Increase) in debtors (121) (5,517)
(Decrease) in creditors (1,992) (366)
(Decrease)/increase in provisions (2,880) 9,801
Net cash generated from operating activities (826) (2,131)
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchases of property, plant and equipment (285) -
Purchase of intangible assets (211) -
Interest receivable 13 29
Net cash generated from/(used in) investing activities (483) 29
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (1,309) (2,102)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 38,920 41,022
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of year 37,611 38,920
----- End of picture text -----

Notes:

----- Start of picture text -----
a) Analysis of changes in net debt At 1 Apr 2021 Cash flows At 31 Mar 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000
Cash at bank and in hand 38,920 (1,309) 37,611
Total changes in net debt 38,920 (1,309) 37,611
----- End of picture text -----

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Notes to the financial statements

Year ended 31 March 2022

Citizens Advice is a public benefit entity registered as charity in England and Wales and a company limited by guarantee. It was incorporated on 13 July 1979 (company number: 1436945) and registered as a charity on 21 January 1980 (charity number: 279057).

The registered office of Citizens Advice is: 3rd Floor North, 200 Aldersgate, London, EC1A 4HD.

1. Accounting policies

a) Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable

in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006. Citizens Advice meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s). The principal accounting policies, which have been applied consistently, except where noted are set out below.

b) Consolidation

Citizens Advice Limited, a trading subsidiary controlled by Citizens Advice has also been consolidated within the accounts on a lineby-line basis. The net incoming resources for Citizens Advice alone were £3,774,000 in 2021-22 (£6,442,000 net outgoing in 2020-21).

A separate statement of financial activities for the charity is not presented because the charity has taken advantage of the exemptions afforded by Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006. The charity

has taken advantage of the exemption in FRS 102 from the requirements to present a charity-only cash flow statement and certain disclosures about the charity’s financial instruments.

c) Going concern

The financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis. Our key risks and uncertainties are summarised on page 50-53, which include securing longer term funding to build our financial resilience. We acknowledge our pension fund obligations and as a result our unrestricted funds deficit. We have a clear strategy to manage the pension deficit, which includes a pension deficit reduction plan which is subject to continued discussion and agreement with the pension scheme trustee board.

Our going concern position is supported by a strong cash flow, sufficient reserves, good relationships with our key funders and a proven ability to retain and secure new services.

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1. Accounting policies (continued)

Detailed financial budgets are presented and approved by the trustee board on a 12-month basis together with forecasts and projections over a 3 year period. Our planning and reporting processes, including scenario planning, take into consideration the current economic climate (including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic) and its potential impact on our various sources of income and planned expenditure. Furthermore, management accounts for the parent charity are presented at regular intervals to the trustee board throughout the financial year on progress against budget. Any changes in funding within the year are reflected as soon as practicable and action taken by management to ensure that the charity spends within its available resources.

The Trustees therefore have a reasonable

expectation that the group has sufficient resources to continue in its operational existence for the foreseeable future, being at least 12 months from the date of approval of these financial statements, and believe that there are no material uncertainties

that call into doubt the ability of the group to continue as a going concern.

d) Fixed assets

Fixed assets are recognised on the balance sheet on initial acquisition, in accordance with FRS 102.

Only assets over £1,000 are capitalised. Depreciation is charged on a straight-line basis on the cost of assets less residual value over their estimated useful life. A full year’s depreciation is charged in the year of acquisition. Fixed assets are assessed for impairment at the balance sheet date.

The estimated lives of the assets are as follows:

they will be amortised on the straight-line basis over the anticipated life of the benefits arising from the completed project, usually expected to be between 3 and 8 years

e) Stocks

Stocks are goods donated and held for distribution to local Citizens Advice which are yet to be distributed at the balance sheet date. They are held at carrying value, measured at fair value at the balance sheet date. Due to the nature of the goods and the availability of selling prices for comparable items, the fair value is based on market value of equivalent items and assessed for impairment at the balance sheet date.

f) Leases

Rent-free periods are accounted for over the period of the lease to the first break clause for each property.

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1. Accounting policies (continued)

g) Pension costs

The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) Pension and Assurance Plan (1991) is a multi-employer defined benefit scheme which was closed during the financial year ended 31 March 2008. Having taken advice from the scheme’s actuary, Citizens Advice cannot identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilities on a consistent and reasonable basis. The disclosures under FRS 102 in this circumstance are shown in note 23.

The expected cost of providing pensions is calculated periodically by a professionally-qualified actuary. The operating costs of providing retirement benefits to employees are charged to the statement of financial activities in the year in which they are incurred as required by FRS 102.

On 1 April 2005, Citizens Advice introduced a defined contribution pension, the Citizens Advice Group Personal Pension Plan operated by Scottish Widows. From April 2014, staff are automatically enrolled unless they opt out of the scheme. The

employer’s contributions are charged to the

statement of financial activities in the period in which they were incurred. Some Consumer Futures members who transferred in April 2014 retain participation in the Civil Service scheme.

h) Financial instruments

Citizens Advice has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at the present value of future cash flows (amortised cost). Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise the group’s debtors excluding prepayments.

Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise the group’s short- and long-term creditors excluding deferred income and taxation payable. Financial liabilities held at fair value comprise the group’s provisions. No discounting has been applied on the basis that the periods over which amounts will be settled are such that any discounting would be immaterial.

Investments in subsidiary undertakings are held at cost less impairment.

i) Grants payable and receivable

Grants payable are made to local Citizens Advice and other bodies, and the liability is recognised when the obligation arises although the grant may not be due.

Grants receivable are recognised when entitlement is established, there is probability of receipt and the amount can be reliably measured. Any unexpended grant is carried forward in reserves.

If any grant has been provided for a stated purpose, it is carried forward as restricted funds. Any unused grants not able to be used for the purpose determined by the funder are returned in accordance with the funding agreement.

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1. Accounting policies (continued)

j) Deferred income

Deferred income relating to subscriptions is shown within the balance sheet. Other deferred income relates to restricted funding received in advance but where the related expenditure can only take place in a future accounting period.

k) Legacies

Legacies are recognised when they are received or when probate is given and a reliable estimate of the amount is available, whichever is sooner.

l) Delivery of services

The trading activities of Citizens Advice, mainly the local Citizens Advice membership fees and the sale of information products, are exercised in the course of carrying out the primary purpose of the charity.

The income and expenditure is shown in the statement of financial activities as delivery of services and strengthening the network respectively.

Any activities that are not for the primary purpose of the charity are accounted for in Citizens Advice Limited and this subsidiary has been consolidated into the Statement of financial activities. The income and expenditure is also shown in the statement of financial activities as delivery of services and strengthening the network respectively.

m) Training and support

The training and support activities comprise income from the provision of training courses in debt, employment, welfare benefits and consumer issues as well as contributions towards the cost of providing insurance cover on behalf of the network in England and Wales.

n) Other income

Donations are recognised upon receipt. Gifts in kind are valued at a reasonable estimate of the value to Citizens Advice, which is normally equal to the market value. Goods donated for distribution are recognised as income at fair value which is the market value and held as stocks until distributed, at

which point they are included under the charitable expenditure at the same value.

o) Resources expended

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under the charitable expenditure activity headings with reference to activities performed in the year.

Costs of generating funds are those costs relating to fundraising for new donors or new projects.

Staff costs are all emoluments incurred. Other direct costs are non-staff costs incurred by each principal activity.

Governance costs are those incurred in connection with the administration of the charity’s constitutional and statutory duties.

Irrecoverable VAT is treated as resources expended in the principal activity that incurred the original VAT.

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1. Accounting policies (continued)

Support costs, including premises, fundraising, central administration, IT support, human resources costs, governance and finance costs (staff and other costs), which are not directly attributable to a particular principal activity, have been fully allocated to departments and activities based on direct staff costs of the principal activity as shown in note 7.

p) Reserves

Unrestricted funds represent funds raised or grants awarded for no specified project which are expendable at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the charity’s objectives. There are no carry-forward restrictions on unrestricted funds. Transfers to and from designated funds are subject to the approval of the trustees.

Restricted funds are awarded for a specified programme as declared by the funder, or restricted with their authority or with a restriction created by a legal process. The scope of the programme is still within the wider objectives of the charity. Income may be awarded in one year for expenditure in that or a subsequent year on a specified programme.

q) Provisions

Provisions for future liabilities are recognised when Citizens Advice has a legal or constructive financial obligation that can be reliably estimated and for which there is an expectation that payment will be made.

The provisions include Citizens Advice’s pension liability in compliance with FRS 102.

r) Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates. The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of

the revision and future periods if the revision affects the current and future periods.

The key judgements and estimates that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are described in the accounting policies and are summarised below:

Income recognition – Due to the range and complexity of the group’s funding streams, income recognition is deemed to be an area that requires judgement to appropriately apply the income accounting policies. The key judgement relates to income streams where the agreement spans different financial years. Income is recognised when the entitlement is established, there is probability of receipt and the amount can be reliably measured.

Pension scheme – The charity is part of a closed defined benefit multi employer scheme alongside 15 local Citizens Advice. During the period the scheme operated there were many staff who moved between working for the different entities involved in the scheme and full records of these movements

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1. Accounting policies (continued)

are unavailable. Therefore, the scheme is unable to properly differentiate the liability between the scheme members. As a result, Citizens Advice accounts for the scheme as a defined contribution plan, recognising on the balance sheet the present value of the future committed payments. Further information is contained within note 23.

Pension liabilities – The charity recognises its liability to its defined benefit pension scheme which involves a number of estimates including the discount rate. The discount rate used for 2021-22 is 2.8%. A number of other estimates are used relating to levels of scheme membership, rates of mortality, key financial market indicators such as inflation and expectations on future asset returns. The charity engages a firm of actuaries to provide expert advice about the assumptions made and the effect on the pension liability of changes in these assumptions.

2. Donations and legacies

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Legacies 107 140
Donations 644 496
Total donations and legacies 751 636
----- End of picture text -----

Donations includes gifts in kind of £400,882 (2021: £196,493) being professional services to the value of £292,226 (2021: £nil) provided by Thoughtwork Social Change Lab and £24,408 (2021: £13,040) provided by 2020 Trustee Services, along with advertising credits for use on Facebook to the value of £nil (2021: £100,788) and Google to the value of £84,248 (2021: £82,665). Goods donated for distribution to beneficiaries were received from DEFRA to the value of £97,716 (2021: £nil).

Further information is contained within note 23

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3. Grants

a) Government grants

----- Start of picture text -----
Funder 2022 2021 Purpose
£’000 £’000
Government department grants
Department for Business, Energy and 25,300 22,300 Core charitable objectives
Industrial Strategy (BEIS) unrestricted
BEIS restricted - 13,500 Covid-19 response
BEIS restricted 10,383 9,544 Consumer service
BEIS restricted 6,089 5,918 Consumer (levy funded)
BEIS restricted - 2,777 Brexit
BEIS restricted 1,849 1,849 Big Energy Saving Week/Network
Department of Health 7 78 Membership of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance
Department of Work and Pensions 33,104 34,729 Universal Support: Help to Claim
Ministry of Justice 11,095 10,722 Court-based Witness Service
HM Treasury 41 122 Debt advice for veterans and emergency services personnel
Home Office 30 141 Windrush interim hardship support services
Welsh government
Welsh government 7,189 5,665 Advice service
Welsh government 3,856 4,022 Debt and housing advice
Welsh government 237 246 Discrimination advice
Welsh government - 11 Better advice: better health
Welsh government - 2 Tackling poverty
Total government grants 99,180 111,626
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3. Grants (continued)

b) Grants from other public bodies

----- Start of picture text -----
Funder 2022 2021 Purpose
£’000 £’000
The Insolvency Service 80 78 Debt relief orders
Money and Pensions Service 9,829 10,083 Pension guidance
Money and Pensions Service 32,021 30,311 Money and debt advice and debt relief orders
Money and Pensions Service - 186 Maintaining capacity on debt advice: energy
Total grants from other public bodies 41,930 40,658
c) Other grants
Purpose (funder) 2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Online scams awareness (Facebook) 647 609
Energy advice (various) 2,100 1,851
Specialist support (various) 360 1,546
Food banks (Trussell Trust) 4,359 1,413
Money advice (various) 628 851
Total other grants 8,094 6,270
Total grants 149,204 158,554
----- End of picture text -----

A list of grant funders is available in the strategic report.

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4. Information regarding directors and employees

The trustees of Citizens Advice are the non-executive directors of the charitable company. No emoluments were paid to any non-executive directors (2021: £nil). Expenses of £nil (2021: £nil) were reimbursed, or paid directly to third parties, for none (2021: £nil) of the non-executive directors during the year in respect of expenses for travel, accommodation and subsistence incurred in the course of executing their duties. Indemnity insurance up to the value of £10 million is provided for the Directors and Trustees, the premiums are paid centrally for the whole group by Citizens Advice.

Employee costs during the year:

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Wages and salaries 38,184 39,112
Social security costs 4,030 4,135
Pension costs 2,457 2,581
Temporary staff 1,772 2,681
Total employee costs 46,443 48,509
----- End of picture text -----

Wages and salaries above include £898,693 (2021: £902,356) for redundancy and settlement costs. Of these payments nil (2021: £41,572) were payable to key management personnel. Redundancy payments were made in line with our contractual terms.

Pension costs shown above relate to amounts accrued in the year with £314,055 (2021: £335,150) included in other creditors at year end. Payments totalling £2.2 million (2021: £2.3 million) were made to the Citizens Advice Group Personal Pension Plan and £102,000 (2021: £101,000) to the Civil Service Pension scheme for Consumer Futures staff who transferred to Citizens Advice in April 2014. In addition to the pension costs disclosed above, contributions totalling £2.4 million (2021: £3.4 million) were made to the NACAB Pension and Assurance Plan (1991) which closed on 27 March 2008 with £2.1 million of this paid from the existing pension liability provision.

The number of employees who received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs but including compensation for loss of office) in excess of £60,000 is analysed below:

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
Number Number
£60,000 to £69,999 43 40
£70,000 to £79,999 21 24
£80,000 to £89,999 8 9
£90,000 to £99,999 4 7
£100,000 to £109,999 2 2
£110,000 to £119,999 2 -
£130,000 to £139,999 1 -
£150,000 to £159,999 1 -
£180,000 to £189,999 - 1
----- End of picture text -----

Citizens Advice has identified the key management personnel as the executive team, as outlined in the strategic report. The total remuneration for key management personnel was £662,480 (2021: £584,944). This includes pension contributions of £24,597 (2021:£23,216). In addition, the key management personnel were reimbursed £1,000 (2021: £1,093) for travel and out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the course of executing their responsibilities.

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4. Information regarding directors and employees (continued)

Key management team remuneration for the year, including basic pay, pension and benefits was as follows:

----- Start of picture text -----
Notes Role Remuneration to 31 March 2022 Remuneration
to 31 March
2021
Salary Pension Total
1 Chief Executive / Former Chief Executive £169,476 - £169,476 £99,837
2 Acting Chief Executive/Chief Operating Officer £83,254 - £83,254 £195,760
Executive Director of Advice and Advocacy £109,324 £8,470 £117,794 £118,491
Executive Director of Operations £109,324 £7,525 £116,849 £117,075
3 Interim Executive Director of Commercial £112,124 £7,270 £119,394 £53,781
4 Executive Director of People £51,250 £1,333 £52,583 -
5 Interim Executive Director of Strategy and Transformation £2,939 £191 £3,130 -
----- End of picture text -----

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4. Information regarding directors and employees (continued)

Pension contributions for key management

personnel in the scheme are paid at the same rate as for all staff. The maximum employer contribution available under the staff scheme is 6.5%.

On 1 April 2021 all staff, including the key management personnel, received a flat rate pay increase of £250, an average of 0.8%. In addition, a one-off payment of £250 was made to those staff who had been working in courts or our offices to compensate them for not receiving the homeworker allowance. Other salary changes were a result of role changes and re-valuations. The remuneration policy is set out in the strategic report.

The average number of people employed in each activity during the year was:

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
Number Number
Raising funds 9 9
Charitable activities
Delivering information and advice 343 337
Advice and advocacy 140 138
Strengthening the local
Citizens Advice network 234 229
Partnerships 298 292
Average number of
persons employed 1,024 1,005
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5. Grants payable

Grant payments were made to local Citizens Advice members in the financial year:

a) Grants to local Citizens Advice members

----- Start of picture text -----
Purpose 2022 2022 2021
Total no £’000 £’000
Money and debt advice 254 24,102 23,560
Pensions guidance 16 7,085 7,227
Consumer advice 7 5,843 5,505
Universal credit: Help to Claim 257 26,336 27,617
Welsh Government funded projects 79 9,387 8,323
Energy advice 170 1,942 2,114
Brexit advice - - 530
Witness services 2 592 640
Online scams awareness 7 217 217
Gambling support service 18 35 594
Debt relief orders 197 51 38
Help through Hardship 18 3,011 853
Meeting More Demand - Covid-19 response - - 5,427
Innovation - Covid-19 response - - 916
Various projects 6 1,680 1,201
Total local Citizens Advice network grants 1,031 80,281 84,762
----- End of picture text -----

Grants are received for the above purposes and distributed amongst local Citizens Advice members. The local Citizens Advice members who received a grant in the year are shown in appendix 1.

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5. Grants payable (continued)

b) Grants from other public bodies

93 grants (2021:161 grants) paid to non local Citizens Advice network participants in delivery of national projects, funded by partner organisations.

----- Start of picture text -----
Purpose Recipient 2022 2022 2021
Total no £’000 £’000
Debt advice Better Leeds Communities 2 125 128
Debt advice Birmingham Settlement 2 351 358
Energy/Online scams Citizens Advice Scotland 1 90 203
Debt advice Ebor Gardens Advice Centre 2 217 207
Energy Energy Saving Trust 1 25 65
Immigration advice Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team Wales 1 2 69
Supporting veterans FirstLight Trust 1 22 18
Energy Fuel Bank Foundation 1 430 -
Debt advice Homemaker Southwest 2 193 201
Debt advice and financial capability Ipswich Housing Action Group 2 131 123
Debt advice Mind Salford 1 106 108
Debt line Money Advice Trust 1 1,271 1,348
Debt advice Money Advice and Community Support 2 85 124
Debt advice Norfolk Community Law Service 2 87 68
Various Shelter 1 412 309
Various SNAP Cymru 1 123 123
Debt advice Speakeasy Law Centre 1 66 66
Debt advice St Vincent’s Centre 2 146 128
Various Tenovus Cancer Care - - 62
Various 74 miscellaneous grants (2020: 94) 67 334 682
Total grants to others 93 4,216 4,390
Total grants 1,119 84,497 89,152
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6. Total resources expended

Total resources expended for the year ended 31 March 2022:

----- Start of picture text -----
Direct Grants Other direct Support Total
staff costs costs costs 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Costs of generating funds 631 - 822 263 1,716
Charitable objectives
Delivering information and advice 12,977 6,773 3,146 5,394 28,290
Advice and advocacy 5,335 - 1,692 2,217 9,244
Strengthening the local Citizens Advice network 9,114 80 3,085 3,787 16,066
Partnerships 10,149 77,644 4,782 3,162 95,737
Total resources expended 38,206 84,497 13,527 14,823 151,053
----- End of picture text -----

Total resources expended for the year ended 31 March 2022:

----- Start of picture text -----
Direct Grants Other direct Support Total
staff costs costs costs 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Costs of generating funds 356 - 204 157 717
Charitable objectives
Delivering information and advice 13,233 12,782 3,972 5,839 35,826
Advice and advocacy 5,413 - 1,418 2,388 9,219
Strengthening the local Citizens Advice network 9,015 960 3,199 3,978 17,152
Partnerships 11,501 75,410 4,107 4,041 95,059
Total resources expended 39,518 89,152 12,900 16,403 157,973
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7. Support cost breakdown by activity

Support costs are allocated across activities based on direct staff costs. The amounts below represent the allocated staff and other allocated costs in note 6. Support costs breakdown by activity for the year ended 31 March 2022:

----- Start of picture text -----
Premises & Finance IT, Data People Other 2022
Facilities & Change services & Comms Corporate
Management £’000 services
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Costs of generating funds 45 40 54 76 48 263
Charitable objectives
Delivering information and advice 924 826 1,114 1,561 969 5,394
Advice and advocacy 380 339 458 642 398 2,217
Strengthening the local Citizens Advice network 648 580 782 1,096 681 3,787
Partnerships 542 484 653 915 568 3,162
Total support cost 2,539 2,269 3,061 4,290 2,664 14,823
----- End of picture text -----

Support costs include governance costs of £1.2 million (2021: £1.1 million). These costs include internal and external audit fees (see note 9), costs incurred in supporting the work of the trustees and an apportionment of executive team costs.

Support costs breakdown by activity for the year ended 31 March 2021:

----- Start of picture text -----
Premises Finance IT, Data & Change People services & Other 2021
& Facilities Comms Corporate services
Management £’000 £’000 £’000
£’000 £’000 £’000
Costs of generating funds 23 35 32 35 32 157
Charitable objectives
Delivering information and advice 837 1,334 1,184 1,302 1,182 5,839
Advice and advocacy 343 546 484 532 483 2,388
Strengthening the local Citizens Advice network 570 909 807 887 805 3,978
Partnerships 580 923 819 901 818 4,041
Total support cost 2,353 3,747 3,326 3,657 3,320 16,403
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8. Corporation tax

Citizens Advice is a registered charity and accordingly is exempt from taxation on income and gains where they are applied for charitable purposes. Citizens Advice Limited covenants all distributable profits to the main charity each year under Gift Aid and does not incur any tax liability.

9. Net expenditure

Net outgoing resources for the year are stated after charging:

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Operating lease costs
Property 1,675 1,806
Office equipment 12 16
Amortisation 402 367
Depreciation 94 55
External auditor’s remuneration 89 49
Internal auditor’s remuneration 50 50
----- End of picture text -----

10. Fixed assets –

intangible assets

The fixed assets of Citizens Advice are the same as those of the group, as stated below. Assets have been split between intangible and tangible assets in accordance with FRS102 and the Charities SORP 2019. Intangible fixed assets include computer licences and software purchases.

----- Start of picture text -----
Infrastructure software
Operational Total
£’000 £’000
Cost
At 1 April 2021 3,793 3,793
Additions 211 211
Disposals (495) (495)
At 31 March 2022 3,509 3,509
Amortisation
At 1 April 2021 2,362 2,362
Charge for the year 402 402
Disposals (495) (495)
At 31 March 2022 2,269 2,269
Net book value at
31 March 2022 1,240 1,240
Net book value at
31 March 2021 1,431 1,431
----- End of picture text -----

The amortisation charge is reallocated over all charitable activities.

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11. Fixed assets –

tangible assets

This includes capitalised fixtures, fittings and equipment.

Fixtures,
fttings &
equipment
£’000		 Total
£’000
Cost
At 1 April 2021 201 201
Additions 285 285
At 31 March 2022 486 486
Depreciation
At 1 April 2021 165 165
Charge for theyear 94 94
At 31 March 2022 259 259
Net book value at 31 March 2022 227 227
Net book value at 31 March 2021 36 36

12. Stocks

----- Start of picture text -----
Group Citizens Advice
2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Donated goods held 90 - 90 -
for distribution
Total stocks 90 - 90 -
----- End of picture text -----

Stocks held were donated refurbished tablets

& mobile phones which Citizens Advice are distributing to local Citizens Advice.

13. Debtors

----- Start of picture text -----
Group Citizens Advice
2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade debtors 321 187 321 168
Other debtors 2,843 2,234 2,843 2,234
Prepayments and
accrued income 5,038 5,660 5,038 5,660
Subsidiary
undertakings - - 215 223
Total debtors 8,202 8,081 8,417 8,285
----- End of picture text -----

Included in other debtors is £15,700 (2021: £17,000) which relates to 17 (2021: 7) staff season ticket, car or career development loans and the Cycle to Work Scheme. These are interest free and are recoverable through monthly payroll deductions. There were no executive directors (2021: £nil) with a loan outstanding at the balance sheet date (2021: £nil).

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14. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

----- Start of picture text -----
Group Citizens Advice
2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade creditors 1,605 1,034 1,605 1,034
Local Citizens Advice
network grants 893 1,753 893 1,753
Other creditors 2,471 2,083 2,471 2,083
Other taxation and
social security 1,125 1,114 1,125 1,114
Accruals and
deferred income 4,786 6,888 4,738 6,888
Total creditors 10,880 12,872 10,832 12,872
amounts falling due
within one year
----- End of picture text -----

Accruals and deferred income comprises: Accruals and deferred income comprises:
Accruals 3,542
5,113
3,542		 5,113
Deferred income
brought forward 1,775
1,585
1,775		 1,585
Amount released
frompreviousyear (1,149)
(1,160)
(1,149)		 (1,160)
Incoming resources
deferred in theyear 618
1,350
570		 1,350
4,786
6,888
4,738		 6,888

15. Investments

The value of shares held in Citizens Advice Limited is £2 being 2 ordinary shares of £1 each which represents 100% of the issued share capital. The company is a private limited company which was incorporated on 16 July 1982. The company is incorporated in England. The company manages all forms of sponsorship opportunities and other trading activities on behalf of the parent company and covenants all profits under Gift Aid. The turnover in 2022 was £32,000 (2021: £81,600) which generated a profit of £8,605 (2021: profit £55,271). Net assets were £2 in 2022 (2021: £2). The shares are held as a fixed asset.

There were no cash deposits held as investments at 31 March 2022 (2021: £nil) and none were held as fixed assets (2021: £nil) or as current assets (2021: £nil).

16. Cash at bank and in hand

Cash and fixed-term deposits valued at £37.6 million (2021: £38.9 million) were held as at 31 March 2022. These were all held in UK accounts. Of these £4.7 million has been identified in the balance sheet as a designated fund for technology investments (2021: £4.7 million).

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17. Provisions

----- Start of picture text -----
Group Citizens Advice
2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Property provisions
Provision at 1 April 2021 660 767 660 767
(Released) during the year (43) (194) (43) (194)
(Utilised) during the year (87) - (87) -
Additional provision - 87 - 87
Property provision at 31 March 2022 530 660 530 660
Other provisions
Provision at 1 April 2021 29,045 19,137 29,045 19,137
(Released) during the year (2) (2) (2) (2)
(Utilised) for deficit funding contribution (2,111) (1,611) (2,111) (1,611)
Increase due to unwinding of discount factor 566 421 566 421
Additional provision due to revaluation - 10,849 - 10,849
(Released)/additional due to change in discount factor used (1,203) 251 (1,203) 251
Other provision at 31 March 2022 26,295 29,045 26,295 29,045
Total provisions at 31 March 2022 26,825 29,705 26,285 29,705
----- End of picture text -----

provision due to unwinding the discounting of £0.6 million (2021: £0.4 million), and a decrease in the provision due to a change in the discount factor of £1.2 million (2021: £0.2 million increase). In addition, there was a significant increase in this provision in 2021 due to the triennial valuation of the pension scheme with no equivalent in the current year.

The provision includes Citizens Advice’s pension liability in compliance with FRS 102 of £26.3 million (2021: £29.0 million). Movements included in other provisions above which relate to the pension scheme are a decrease in the provision following payment of the annual deficit funding contribution of £2.1 million (2021: £1.6 million), an increase in the

The nature of provisions and the expected timing of resulting payments are:

----- Start of picture text -----
Nature of provision Amount Payment
£’000 due
----- End of picture text -----

Nature of provision
 Amount
£’000		 Payment
due
Dilapidations payments due
on major repairs on leased
buildings after the frst
break clause		 530 Between 2022
and 2025
Local Citizens Advice
pension liability		 10 2027
Pension contribution liability 26,285 See note 23
Total provisions at 31
March 2022		 26,825

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18. Financial instruments

As at 31 March 2022 the Group’s financial instruments were:

----- Start of picture text -----
Group
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Financial assets at amortised cost
Trade debtors 321 187
Other debtors 2,843 2,234
Accrued income 3,749 4,435
Total financial assets at amortised cost 6,913 6,856
Financial liabilities at amortised cost
Trade creditors 1,605 1,034
Local Citizens Advice network grants 853 1,753
Other creditors 2,471 2,083
Accruals 3,581 5,113
Total financial liabilities
at amortised cost 8,510 9,983
Financial liabilities at fair value
through income or expenditure
Provisions 26,825 29,705
Total financial liabilities at fair value
through income or expenditure 26,825 29,705
----- End of picture text -----

Income, expenses, gains and losses in respect of these financial instruments were:

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£’000 £’000
Income Expense Gains/ Income Expense Gains/
(losses) (losses)
Financial assets at
amortised cost
Interest on cash 13 - - 30 - -
balances
----- End of picture text -----

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19. Statement of funds

----- Start of picture text -----
At 1 April Income Expenditure Transfers At 31 March
2021 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Money and debt 4,935 32,239 (31,302) - 5,872
Pensions guidance 159 9,829 (9,829) - 159
Consumer and energy 3,376 19,832 (19,832) - 3,376
Welfare 100 33,104 (33,204) - -
Wales specific services 12 11,282 (11,287) - 7
Justice 34 11,125 (11,125) - 34
Housing 172 51 (51) - 172
Other 2,254 7,335 (8,219) - 1,370
Total restricted funds 11,042 124,797 (124,849) - 10,990
Designated funds 6,192 - - - 6,192
Unrestricted funds 17,691 27,281 (26,204) - 18,768
Total unrestricted funds 23,883 27,281 (26,204) - 24,960
Pension scheme (29,034) 1,546 1,203 - (26,285)
Total funds 5,891 153,624 (149,850) - 9,665
----- End of picture text -----

Restricted funds represent that funding received with specific restrictions as to what it is spent on. The funds carried forward represent that restricted funding where income has been recognised but where the funds have not yet been spent.

This is split between freely available unrestricted funds and designated funds.

Designated funds represent those unrestricted funds that have been allocated by the board of trustees for technological investment, with a value of £4.7 million (2021: £4.7 million). The remaining £1.5 million (2021: £1.5 million) is a designated fund

Unrestricted funds represent funding where there is no restriction applied to how the funding is spent.

reserved for tangible and intangible fixed assets which are equal to the net book value of those assets.

The board of trustees has reviewed the reserves policy in the year and has maintained the target range of free reserves as 3 to 6 months of core operating costs. This equals £10 million to £20 million (2021: £10 million to £20 million). Free reserves are considered to be unrestricted funds less designated funds. As of 31 March 2022, our free reserves totalled £18.8 million (2021: £17.6 million) and so we’re within the target range.

The pension reserve as at 31 March 2022 was £26.3 million (2021: £29.0 million) and represents the provision in the accounts for future committed payments to a closed defined benefit pension scheme. Further details are in note 23.

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19. Statement of funds (continued)

Comparative statement of funds

The categorisation of reserves has been reviewed to reflect changes over time in the key funding streams and associated activities of the charity. This is also intended to be more meaningful and relevant to stakeholders. As such the prior year statement of funds is shown restated using the new categories for comparability and consistency.

----- Start of picture text -----
At 1 April Income Expenditure Transfers At 31 March
2020 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Covid-19 response - 13,803 (13,803) - -
Money and debt 4,299 30,412 (29,787) 11 4,935
Pensions guidance 159 10,083 (10,083) - 159
Consumer and energy 3,687 19,868 (20,179) - 3,376
Welfare 100 34,729 (34,729) - 100
Wales specific services 28 9,946 (9,959) (3) 12
Justice 109 10,863 (10,913) (25) 34
Housing 172 105 (105) - 172
Other 1,452 7,509 (6,636) (71) 2,254
Total restricted funds 10,006 137,318 (136,194) (88) 11,042
Designated funds 7,034 - (420) (422) 6,192
Unrestricted funds 14,417 24,123 (21,359) 510 17,691
Total unrestricted funds 21,451 24,123 (21,779) - 23,883
Pension scheme (19,124) 1,190 (11,100) - (29,034)
Total funds 12,333 162,631 (169,073) - 5,891
----- End of picture text -----

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20. Analysis of net assets between funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Total
2022 2021 2022 2021 2022 2021
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fund balances
at 31 March are
represented by:
Fixed assets 1,240 1,431 - - 1,240 1,431
– intangible
Fixed assets 227 36 - - 227 36
– tangible assets
Current assets 29,597 30,005 16,306 16,996 45,903 47,001
Creditors: amounts (5,564) (6,918) (5,316) (5,954) (10,880) (12,872)
falling due within
one year
Provisions (26,825) (29,705) - - (26,825) (29,705)
Fund balance (1,325) (5,151) 10,990 11,042 9,665 5,891
----- End of picture text -----

21. Local Citizens Advice network

The financial statements record the income and expenditure of Citizens Advice. Individual local Citizens Advice network members are not consolidated within these accounts as they are independent legal entities funded directly and indirectly from their own sources and are accountable to their own members and funding bodies.

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22. Operating lease commitments

At 31 March 2022, Citizens Advice was committed to making the following minimum payments in respect of operating leases:

----- Start of picture text -----
The group had minimum lease payments 2022 2021
under non-cancellable operating leases Land and Other Land and Other
as set out below:
buildings buildings
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Within 1 year 1,945 12 2,086 16
Between 2 and 5 years 2,224 - 4,202 -
After 5 years - - - -
Total operating lease commitments 4,169 12 6,288 16
----- End of picture text -----

At the end of the year there were capital commitments of £nil (2021: £146,430).

23. Pension scheme

National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux Pension and Assurance Plan (1991)

Citizens Advice is the principal employer of a defined benefit scheme ('the Plan') in the UK which provides both pensions in retirement and death benefits to members. Pension benefits are related to the members' final salaries at retirement and their length of service at the date they retired or

left pensionable service. The Plan closed to future accrual on 31 March 2008. The Plan also contains some money purchased additional voluntary contributions and protected rights funds, which are not included in these disclosures.

In accordance with the schedule of contributions in force over the 2022-2023 accounting year, the combined contributions to the Plan from Citizens Advice and other participating employers for the year ending 31 March 2023 are expected to be £2,579,000, which includes £2,279,000 towards the deficit and £300,000 as an allowance for administration expenses and all scheme levies. The 31 March 2022 valuation is currently underway and a new schedule of contributions will be put in place at its completion.

The Plan is a registered scheme under UK legislation. The Plan is subject to the scheme funding requirements outlined in UK legislation. The Plan is governed by the Plan's Trust Deed and Rules dated 4 April 2011. The Trustee is responsible for the operation and the governance of the Plan, including making decisions regarding the Plan's funding investment strategy (although they are required to consult the Principal Employer).

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23. Pension scheme (continued)

A valuation of the Plan was carried out on 31 March 2022 by a qualified independent actuary, based upon membership data as at 31 March 2019, allowing for assumed membership movements over the period from this date, as well as any material membership movements significantly different from those assumed (e.g. transfers out).

The most recent formal actuarial valuation of the Plan was on 31 March 2019 and revealed a funding deficit of £68,501,000. In the recovery plan agreed following the valuation, the Principal Employer and other participating employers agreed to pay deficit reduction contributions of £2,279,000 per annum with the view to eliminating the deficit by 31 March 2037.

The annual contribution that relates to Citizens Advice is £2,111,000. If Citizens Advice paid its annual contributions of £2,110,000 as planned, using an actuarial discount rate of 2.8%, the net present value would be £26,285,388 (2021: £29,033,964 and 2.1% discount rate). This is included in the balance sheet as a provision (as per note 17) and as a negative pension reserve (as per note 19).

The liabilities of the Plan are based on the current value of expected benefit payment cash flows to members of the Plan over the next 60 or more years. The average duration of the liabilities is approximately 15 years.

The Plan is exposed to actuarial risks such as market (investment) risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, currency risk and longevity risk.

Present values of scheme liabilities, fair value of assets and defined benefit asset (liability)

----- Start of picture text -----
31 March 2022 31 March 2021
£’000 £’000
Fair value of plan assets 102,214 99,353
Present value of defined benefit obligation 148,768 161,415
(Ddeficit) in plan (46,554) (62,062)
Assumptions
Discount rate 2.80% 2.10%
Inflation (RPI) 3.70% 3.30%
Inflation (CPI) 3.23% 2.80%
Assumed life expectancies on retirement at
age 65 are:
Retiring today - Males 21.3 21.2
Retiring today - Females 24.2 24.1
Retiring in 20 years time - Males 22.6 22.6
Retiring in 20 years time - Females 25.7 25.7
----- End of picture text -----

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24. Related party transactions

Citizens Advice Limited is a subsidiary company owned by Citizens Advice and all Citizens Advice non-charitable trading is conducted through it. The directors are the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Warren Buckley, Lucinda Bell and Michele Shambrook. During the year ended 31 March 2022, it made a surplus before Gift Aid of £8,616 (2021: £55,271).

At 31 March 2022, Citizens Advice Limited (company number 1652053) owed £215,185 to Citizens Advice (2021: £222,528). The accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 were approved on 26 July 2022.

Citizens Advice International is a company which was registered in Belgium on 6 December 2004. Although not a related party under FRS 102, it is included here due to the connection of name and objectives. It was established to provide support to Citizens Advice organisations throughout the world. No charge has been made for any expenditure incurred by Citizens Advice on behalf of Citizens Advice International during the year.

On 31 March 2022, Citizens Advice owed Citizens Advice International £nil (2021: £nil). Citizens Advice International is not consolidated into the accounts as it is a separate entity and Citizens Advice does not have the power to control it.

NACAB Pension Trustees Limited is a company limited by guarantee and is the corporate Trustee of the NACAB Pension & Assurance Plan (1991). Citizens Advice is the sole member of this company. This subsidiary was incorporated on 14 February 2017. There were no financial transactions or balances in the year to 31 March 2022.

There were no other transactions with trustees or related entities in the year.

25. Company limited by guarantee

Citizens Advice is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. All local Citizens Advice are members of Citizens Advice and there are no other members. The maximum liability of each member is limited to £1. The trustees have no liability.

Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021–2022

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Appendix 1: Grants payable to local Citizens Advice Network

Listed below are all the local Citizens Advice charities which have been the beneficiaries of grants payable by national Citizens Advice as summarised in note 5:

Citizens Advice Allerdale

Citizens Advice Bridport & District

Citizens Advice Central Dorset

Citizens Advice Darlington

Citizens Advice Arun & Chichester Citizens Advice Ashfield Citizens Advice Barking & Dagenham Citizens Advice Barnet Citizens Advice Barnsley Citizens Advice Barrow Citizens Advice Basingstoke Citizens Advice Bassetlaw Citizens Advice Bath & North East Somerset Citizens Advice Bedford Citizens Advice Bedworth, Rugby & Nuneaton Citizens Advice Bexley Citizens Advice Birmingham Citizens Advice Blackpool Citizens Advice Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Citizens Advice Bradford & Airedale Citizens Advice Braintree, Halstead & Witham Citizens Advice Brent Citizens Advice Bridgend County Borough

Citizens Advice Brighton & Hove Citizens Advice Bristol Citizens Advice Bromley

Citizens Advice Bromsgrove & Redditch

Citizens Advice Broxbourne Citizens Advice Broxtowe Citizens Advice Buckinghamshire Citizens Advice Burnley & Pendle Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton Citizens Advice Caerphilly Blaenau Gwent Citizens Advice Calderdale Citizens Advice Cambridge & District Citizens Advice Camden

Citizens Advice Canterbury District Citizens Advice Cardiff & Vale

Citizens Advice Carlisle & Eden Citizens Advice Carmarthenshire Citizens Advice Caterham & Warlingham Citizens Advice Central & East Northamptonshire

Citizens Advice Ceredigion Citizens Advice Chapeltown Citizens Advice Charnwood Citizens Advice Cheadle Citizens Advice Chelmsford Citizens Advice Cheshire East Citizens Advice Cheshire East North Citizens Advice Cheshire West Citizens Advice Chiltern Citizens Advice Colchester Citizens Advice Conwy Citizens Advice Copeland Citizens Advice Corby & Kettering Citizens Advice Cornwall Citizens Advice County Durham Citizens Advice Coventry Citizens Advice Craven & Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice Croydon Citizens Advice Dacorum

Citizens Advice Daventry & District Citizens Advice Denbighshire Citizens Advice Derbyshire Districts Citizens Advice Diss, Thetford & District Citizens Advice Doncaster Borough Citizens Advice Dover, Deal & District Citizens Advice Dudley & Wolverhampton Citizens Advice Dunstable & District Citizens Advice East Berkshire Citizens Advice East Devon Citizens Advice East Dorset and Purbeck Citizens Advice East End Citizens Advice East Hampshire Citizens Advice East Herts Citizens Advice East Suffolk Citizens Advice East Yorkshire Citizens Advice Eastbourne Citizens Advice Eastleigh Citizens Advice Edenbridge & Westerham

Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021–2022

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Contents 101

Citizens Advice Elmbridge (West)
Citizens Advice Enfeld
Citizens Advice Epping Forest District
Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell
Citizens Advice Esher & District
Citizens Advice Essex
Citizens Advice Exeter
Citizens Advice Fareham
Citizens Advice Flintshire
Citizens Advice Fylde
Citizens Advice Gateshead
Citizens Advice Gosport
Citizens Advice Greater Manchester
Citizens Advice Greenwich
Citizens Advice Guildford & Ash
Citizens Advice Gwynedd
Citizens Advice Halton
Citizens Advice Hammersmith & Fulham
Citizens Advice Haringey
Citizens Advice Harlow
Citizens Advice Harrow
Citizens Advice Hart
Citizens Advice Hartlepool
Citizens Advice Hastings 1066
Citizens Advice Havant		 Citizens Advice Havering
Citizens Advice Hertsmere
Citizens Advice High Wycombe
Citizens Advice Hillingdon
Citizens Advice Hounslow
Citizens Advice Ipswich
Citizens Advice Isle of Wight
Citizens Advice Kensington & Chelsea
Citizens Advice Kingston Upon Thames
Citizens Advice Kirklees & Law Centre
Citizens Advice Knowsley
Citizens Advice Lancashire West
Citizens Advice Leeds
Citizens Advice Leek
Citizens Advice Leicestershire
Citizens Advice Leighton-Linslade
Citizens Advice Leiston & Saxmundham
Citizens Advice Lewes District
Citizens Advice Lewisham
Citizens Advice Lincoln & District
Citizens Advice Lindsey
Citizens Advice Liverpool
Citizens Advice Luton
Citizens Advice Maidstone
Citizens Advice Maldon & District

Citizens Advice Manchester

Citizens Advice Mansfield Citizens Advice Medway Citizens Advice Mendip

Citizens Advice Merthyr Tydfil Citizens Advice Merton & Lambeth Citizens Advice Mid Bedfordshire Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire Citizens Advice Mid Mercia Citizens Advice Mid Suffolk Citizens Advice Middlesbrough Citizens Advice Mid-North Yorkshire Citizens Advice Milton Keynes Citizens Advice Mole Valley Citizens Advice Monmouthshire County Citizens Advice New Forest Citizens Advice Newcastle Citizens Advice Newport Citizens Advice Norfolk Citizens Advice North Tyneside Citizens Advice North Warwickshire Citizens Advice North & West Gloucestershire Citizens Advice North & West Kent Citizens Advice North East Derbyshire Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire

Citizens Advice North East Suffolk

Citizens Advice North Hertfordshire Citizens Advice North Lancashire Citizens Advice North Lincolnshire

Citizens Advice North Somerset

Citizens Advice North Oxfordshire & South Northants Citizens Advice Northumberland Citizens Advice Nottingham & District Citizens Advice Oxford

Citizens Advice Oxfordshire South & Vale

Citizens Advice Oxted

Citizens Advice Pembrokeshire Citizens Advice Peterborough Citizens Advice Plymouth Citizens Advice Portsmouth Citizens Advice Powys

Citizens Advice Preston District

Citizens Advice Reading

Citizens Advice Redbridge

Citizens Advice Redcar & Cleveland Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead Citizens Advice Rhondda Cynon Taff Citizens Advice Ribble Valley Citizens Advice Richmond

Citizens Advice Rossendale & Hyndburn

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Citizens Advice Rother District

Citizens Advice Rotherham & District Citizens Advice Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice Runnymede & Spelthorne Citizens Advice Rural Cambs Citizens Advice Rushmoor Citizens Advice Rutland Citizens Advice Salford Citizens Advice Sandwell & Walsall LTD Citizens Advice Scarborough & District Citizens Advice Sedgemoor Citizens Advice Sefton Citizens Advice Sheffield Citizens Advice Shepway District Citizens Advice Sherwood & Newark Citizens Advice Shropshire Citizens Advice Solihull Borough Citizens Advice SORT Group Citizens Advice South East Staffordshire Citizens Advice South Essex Citizens Advice South Gloucestershire

Citizens Advice South Hams

Citizens Advice South Lakes Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire Citizens Advice South Somerset Citizens Advice South Tyneside Citizens Advice South Warwickshire Citizens Advice South Worcestershire Citizens Advice Southampton Citizens Advice Southend Citizens Advice Southwark Citizens Advice St Albans District Citizens Advice St Helens Citizens Advice Staffordshire North & Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Staffordshire South West Citizens Advice Stevenage Citizens Advice Stockton & District Citizens Advice Stroud & Cotswold Districts Citizens Advice Sudbury & District Citizens Advice Sunderland Citizens Advice Surrey Heath Citizens Advice Sutton Borough

Citizens Advice Swale

Citizens Advice Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot Citizens Advice Swindon Citizens Advice Tadley Citizens Advice Tameside District

Citizens Advice Taunton Citizens Advice Teignbridge Citizens Advice Telford & the Wrekin

Citizens Advice Tendring Citizens Advice Test Valley Citizens Advice Thanet Citizens Advice Three Rivers Citizens Advice Torbay Citizens Advice Torfaen Citizens Advice Torridge, North, Mid & West Devon Citizens Advice Tunbridge Wells Citizens Advice Uttlesford Citizens Advice Wakefield District Citizens Advice Waltham Forest Citizens Advice Wandsworth Citizens Advice Warrington

Citizens Advice Watford

Citizens Advice Waverley

Citizens Advice Wealden

Citizens Advice Welwyn Hatfield Citizens Advice West Berkshire Citizens Advice West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice West Somerset Citizens Advice West Suffolk

Citizens Advice West Sussex (North, South, East) Citizens Advice Westminster Citizens Advice Wigan Borough Citizens Advice Wiltshire Citizens Advice Winchester District Citizens Advice Wirral Citizens Advice Woking Citizens Advice Wokingham Citizens Advice Worcester Citizens Advice Wrexham & District Citizens Advice Wyre Forest Citizens Advice Ynys Mon Citizens Advice York

Citizens Advice Annual Report and Accounts 2021–2022

Citizens Advice helps people find a way forward.

We provide free, confidential and independent advice to help people overcome their problems. We are a voice for our clients and consumers on the issues that matter to them. We value diversity, champion equality, and challenge discrimination and harassment. We’re here for everyone.

© Citizens Advice October 2022

Citizens Advice is an operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. Registered charity number 279057.

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