Advice services provide people with free and impartial advice on issues they face. They play a pivotal role in empowering individuals to make informed decisions, ensuring they are aware of their rights and connecting them with vital resources.

Alma Economics was commissioned by the Welsh Government to estimate current and future levels of social welfare information and advice need in Wales. Our analysis looked at five different categories of advice need in each local authority: Welfare Benefits, Debt, Consumer and Finance, Housing and Neighbour, and Employment. The purpose of our work was to inform Welsh Government policy around advice services, including future discussions of funding.

Our team created a panel of estimates of historical advice need by local authority, year, and category of advice using data from Understanding Society. We then carried out regression analysis to explore the links between macroeconomic variables and advice need. Finally, we built a model to estimate future levels of advice need using forecasts of macroeconomic data, and we performed scenario analysis to understand how future developments might impact the levels of need.

➥ Our report is available here.