About CASL

TEN THINGS - you didn't know about Citizens Advice South Lakeland..

1. Who runs CASL? Citizens Advice South Lakeland is an independent charity, run by local people. It gives generalist advice on everything from benefits, employment issues and consumer rights to housing, immigration and debt advice. The advisers are volunteers, trained to high professional standards.
2. Why is CASL so busy and why can I never get though on the telephone? Because we give free, independent, impartial and confidential advice to the people of South Lakeland and the demand for the service is so great, we can’t always see people as quickly as we would like.
3. What is CASL? We began life as two separate bureaux, KENDAL CAB and ULVERSTON CAB, both of which were founded over 30 years ago. In 2002 the two bureaux merged in order to provide more efficient services to the community - and the result was Citizens Advice South Lakeland.
4. Where can I go to get help? There are two main CAB outlets in KENDAL and ULVERSTON.
5. How many people did CASL help last year? We gave advice and representation to over 2,500 local people last year, with over 4,500 different problems, either as personal callers, by telephone, or by letter.
6. Can you really help with anything? Yes, we can and do! Our main areas of enquiry are debt, benefits and tax credits, housing and employment.
7. Could I volunteer? Yes. CASL is staffed by over 50 volunteers and we are always looking for new people to join the team. As well as people who want to train as advisers, we also need people who can offer IT skills, clerical back-up and language skills relevant to local needs. Formal qualifications are not needed and many find that the CAB experience can help to provide a route into paid work. We need volunteers from all sections of our community, regardless of age, race, gender or educational background. Click here for more details.
8. Are there any opportunities to do any campaigning work? Yes. Because CASL works on the ground with local people, it is in a unique position to identify trends in the types of problems that people are experiencing. This means that we can campaign for social policy changes to be made, locally, regionally and nationally.
9. Who pays for the CAB? CASL is a charity in need of funds from local sources. Most of that funding comes from the local authority but we also receive money from Cumbria County Council, Cumbria PCT, various charitable trusts and other sources.
   You can find out more about funding here.
10. How does our CAB fit in with other Citizens Advice Bureaux around the country? CASL is supported by a national organisation, Citizens Advice, which sets standards for advice-giving that the bureaux must meet. It provides a unique information system - AdviserNet, which is updated daily - , upon which all Citizens Advice Bureaux advice is based. Citizens Advice also co-ordinates our training and social policy work.