Last year the Scottish CAB service recorded an increase of 79% in the numbers of cases related to household fuel bills.
Complaints to CAS about energy bills/ fuel poverty are among the top five most frequently-complained about issues.
These figures are highlighted in a new report published today showing the total number of consumer issues dealt with by the service in the last financial year 2013/14.
In that period Scotland’s 61 local citizens advice bureaux – together with the service’s new consumer helpline – saw a total of 282,220 consumer issues.
This is just part of the total number of 890,000 issues seen by the Scottish CAB service as a whole, but shows how much of the work of the service is now devoted to consumer advice.
Susan McPhee, Head of Policy at CAS, said: “Citizens’ Advice Bureaux have always helped people with consumer problems. Within our general workload of issues like benefits, housing, employment etc., there have always been people who need advice on a utility bill or a scam or faulty goods.
“But the sheer number of consumer problems we see has increased significantly over the last two years as the whole structure of consumer bodies in the country has been made more streamlined, with the CAB becoming one of the main agencies people can come to with their consumer problems.”
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