ADVICE services in Scotland face a “tidal wave of demand,” while the sector languishes in precarity, according to Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS).

CAS says that demand has rocketed as people at “crisis point” in their finances increasingly reach out for help.

A record 100,000 pieces of advice were provided through Scotland’s citizens’ advice network in March, while the number of people seeking help rose to its highest in four years.

Despite the burgeoning demand for advice services as the cost-of-greed crisis has deepened in recent years, CAS says many of those giving advice live a precarious existence amid short-term funding and contracts and while workloads intensify in number and complexity.

CAS chief executive Derek Mitchell said: “It’s not just that CABs are dealing with more cases, they are dealing with more complex cases with clients often presenting at crisis point.

“That takes a toll and is made all the more draining when your own job security is only guaranteed year to year.

“Too often advice agencies find themselves issuing redundancy notices to their own staff because there isn’t security of funding.

“It isn’t morally acceptable, or economically optimal, for advisers helping people with employment rights and income maximisation to be unsure of their own job security and income every single year.

“Services are currently underfunded versus demand, and this demand will not end once the cost-of-living crisis headlines do.

“We recognise there is pressure on budgets, however CABs are facing a tidal wave of demand and the outcomes advisers deliver are second to none.

“There’s no capability issue with CABs, but there is a growing capacity concern.

“Multiyear flexible funding, ensuring CABs have the security on flexibility to deliver for people, would make a massive difference.”

Cost-of-greed campaigners Power to the People’s Coll McCail agreed, adding:

“This news is an important reminder that the cost-of-living crisis has gone nowhere.

“It’s August and thousands of Scots are already at ‘crisis point’ — without further funding, winter does not bear thinking about.

“The Scottish government must act to fund face-to-face debt advice services in communities starved of funding by a decade of austerity.

SNP minister Paul McLennan MSP commented: “The primary funder of advice services remains local authorities and the Scottish government provides funding to support vulnerable and low-income people as part of the block grant provided to all local authorities through the annual local government finance settlement.”