How we handle unacceptable behaviour
We understand your situation could be stressful and you might be frustrated - but our staff have the right to do their jobs without being treated badly.
Check what behaviour is unacceptable
We won’t accept aggressive behaviour while helping you, for example:
swearing
abusive language
discrimination like racism, sexism or homophobia
being violent or threatening violence
We’ll also tell you if you’re taking up an unfair amount of time as this could stop us helping other people. For example, if you:
keep demanding things in a short amount of time
ask to speak to a specific member of staff when it’s not possible, or contact lots of staff to try and get a different outcome
keep changing issues or raising unrelated ones
demand help for something outside our advice areas
keep raising the same issue when we’ve already helped you or we can’t help more
ask for sensitive or confidential information we aren’t allowed to share
make lots of complaints without giving us the chance to resolve them, or make an unreasonable number of data protection rights requests
What we’ll do if your behaviour is unacceptable
We’ll give you a chance to change your behaviour, but if you continue we might:
end the conversation
limit how much time we spend on the phone with you
stop helping you face to face and only help you by phone and email
not reply to all your communications
send letters and documents back to you
only help you with certain issues
In very serious situations we might:
stop helping you completely
call the police
If we decide to stop helping you
If we decide to stop helping you it means you can’t access Citizens Advice services - so we might not respond to any contact from you.
We’ll give you a chance to change your behaviour before we stop helping you - unless your behaviour threatens the safety of our staff or other people.
We’ll always try to tell you why we’ve stopped helping you.
If you think our decision is unfair
If your local Citizens Advice decides to stop helping you, you can appeal to the chair of your local Citizens Advice. Find the contact details for your local Citizens Advice.
If the national organisation decides to stop helping you, you can appeal to the Citizens Advice Client Services team.