Recent campaigns
Spotlight on client issues from April 2025 to March 2026
Over the past financial year, Citizens Advice Oxfordshire have supported 18,109 clients with a total of 71,231 issues. Benefits issues remained a major concern, with more than half of our clients experiencing at least one benefit-related issue. The next highest problem area was PIP (Personal Independence Payment), followed by managed migration with Universal Credit. In total, we helped clients gain £9.7 million in additional income.
For debt clients, the most frequent issues included council tax arrears, fuel debts, and water and sewage debts. This trend suggests that cost-of-living pressures persist and may intensify due to current global events. On average, the number of debt issues per person rose from 2.9 in 2024/25 to 3.1 in 2025/26. Specific arrears have also increased: average council tax debt increased by £216 and fuel debts rose by £183. We successfully helped our clients by getting a total of £1,428,132 in debts written off.
Housing emerged as the third most frequent concern for our clients, with more than 3,000 individuals seeking our assistance. Frequent topics in the private rental sector included tenancy agreements and deposit returns.
Monitoring the rise in water enquiries
Citizens Advice Oxfordshire is continuing its research into the problems clients face when trying to resolve water-related issues with Thames Water. There has been a more than 100% rise in the number of clients reporting issues in 2025 compared to previous years (see chart on right). In particular, there has been a sharp rise in billing and payment problems, which have surged by more than 160% compared with the same period last year, accounting for 35 percent of all issues in this area (Water and Sewerage) for 2025. Issues relating to meter readings have also doubled over the same timeframe.
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We have taken up the issues of excessive and confusing bill increases, communication failures and delays in issue resolution with Thames Water directly.
Social housing tenancies
Citizens Advice in Oxfordshire has had an increase in clients who move into social housing properties where carpets and flooring have been removed. It is common practice that carpets are stripped out after every tenant so that infestations or diseases are not carried to the new tenants. According to UK law, landlords are only obliged to put flooring in kitchens and bathrooms. However, many tenants are unable to afford carpets on top of their bills. The lack of carpets and flooring makes the property more expensive to heat and can be dangerous as well as leading to increased sound complaints.
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Citizens Advice is working with MPs across Oxfordshire to raise awareness of social housing issues and campaign to solve the flooring issues.
Improve living standards 2024
Citizens Advice are campaigning to tackle falling living standards. In a 2024 survey, the charity found 43% of UK voters say it’s more difficult to afford essentials than it was six months ago, despite falling inflation and suggestions that the economy is beginning to pick up. 48% of voters cited living standards as one of the most important factors influencing their vote, ranking second only to health and the NHS (58%) and ahead of immigration (31%) and even the economy (28%). See the monthly cost of living briefings and trends.
Cost of living crisis 2023-24
Between 1 April 2023 and 30 March 24, Citizens Advice West Oxfordshire helped 8,620 people with over 33,261 issues. We helped people to claim benefits, manage their debts, provide housing and employment advice and much more.
We collect and use this information as a national charity to lobby the Government to provide more support for lower income households. We are also working with our local Food Banks and other organisations to help people through this crisis.
If you need help, please get in touch as soon as you can.
Energy saving 2023
Rising energy bills are at the front of everyone’s minds. But how can you be more energy efficient and save money? And what support might you be entitled to for rising energy bills?
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Here’s 3 things you need to know this #EnergySavingWeek
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Research from Citizens Advice found that 3.2 million people across Great Britain ran out of credit on their prepayment meter (PPM) in 2022 because they couldn’t afford to top up. Decide if a prepayment meter is right for you by reading this advice. Prepayment meter advice.
Scams awareness
Citizens Advice is involved in Scams Awareness Fortnight every year. The aim is to give people the skills to identify scams, to encourage people to share their experiences and help people gain the confidence to report scams.
We help to spread the message that scams are crimes that can happen to anyone and that we can all take a stand to help stop them. There are actions we can all take to report them, share stories and raise awareness of scams to safeguard ourselves and others.​
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Read more about our scams awareness campaign and what can be done to prevent being scammed.