Citizens Advice helping one person every two minutes with a redundancy issue

Ahead of the latest ONS employment release, Citizens Advice is warning of a surge in demand for redundancy advice.

  • Between 8-12 June the charity’s frontline advisers helped one person every two minutes with a redundancy issue in England and Wales

  • Since lockdown, the number of people Citizens Advice has helped with redundancy issues has almost tripled compared to the same period last year

  • The charity’s redundancy web pages have been viewed more than half a million times during lockdown

  • On 12 June three of the top-five most-viewed advice pages were redundancy pages

Dame Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:

“In a heartbreaking sign of our times, our frontline advisers are helping one person every two minutes with a redundancy issue.

“Each job loss can mean a household struggling to make rent, cover their bills or pay for their food shop.

“The Job Retention Scheme has so far prevented many redundancies, but with more job losses on the horizon, the government must ensure people can access adequate support through the benefits system. It must also protect people who are facing eviction or harsh debt collection as a result of this pandemic.”

Notes to editors

  1. Between 8-12 June the charity’s frontline advisers helped 1,200 people with 2,000 redundancy issues

  2. The charity has given one-to-one advice to 8,600 people on redundancy issues between 23 March and 12 June, a 199% increase on the same period last year. 

  3. Citizens Advice’s redundancy webpages had 672,946 pageviews between 23 March and 12 June

  4. On 12 June three of the top-five most-viewed advice pages were redundancy pages

  5. Labour market figures will be released here on 16 June 2020

  6. Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.

  7. The availability of face-to-face services will be affected during the outbreak. If people need to speak to someone for advice, they should check our website for the status of their nearest Citizens Advice. 

  8. Our network of charities offers impartial advice online and over the phone, for free. 

  9. We helped 2.7 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2018-19. And we had 29 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.

  10. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.