Demand soars for redundancy advice

Demand for advice relating to redundancy is soaring in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Citizens Advice Scotland has warned.

Citizens Advice Scotland says it has seen increased demand for people looking for advice after being made redundant.

It said it had seen a 191 per cent increase in the number of pieces of redundancy advice given by the 59 bureaux between April and July.

The network advised people on redundancy 543 times in April, increasing to 1584 times in July.In total, almost 2,000 people have sought redundancy advice from the network between April and July.

The UK has just entered its first recession in 11 years.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) is encouraging people to seek advice from local bureaux or online during the crisis.

The charity is also calling on the Chancellor to be flexible about winding down the furlough scheme and extend it for at risk sectors and areas if necessary.

CAS chief executive Derek Mitchell said: “It’s essential that governments and policy makers take the right steps to protect people from the economic storm ahead.

“Households across the country will be facing a financial cliff edge as furlough winds down in the autumn. We want to see flexibility from the Chancellor so people aren’t pushed into unsustainable financial insecurity.

"The Citizens Advice network in Scotland has seen a huge increase in demand for redundancy advice during the pandemic and we can only see that demand increasing in the months the ahead.”