The organisation said that new discrimination legislation coming into effect in October 2023 must have been a factor as it published its latest statistics and an overview of changing trends seen since 2021.
There were 116 discrimination at work inquires and 73 other discrimination cases recorded.
In 2021, there were 25 discrimination at work inquiries raised, and 36 in both 2022 and 2023.
‘Since the discrimination legislation was passed, there’s a lot more awareness of what peoples’ rights are and what can actually be done about it,’ said Citizens Advice Guernsey CEO Ali Marquis.
‘The legislation has been extremely positive and more people now feel able to reach out and have action taken, which I think is why we’ve seen an increase.’
The number of clients with health-related queries dropped in 2024, however the data from 2021 and 2022 was likely to have been overly high due to the pandemic.
There was also a reduction in the number of debt and money enquiries in 2024, compared to 2023.
CAG said that this could be due to the introduction of a new Lending, Credit and Finance Law which came into effect in July 2023.
Last year CAG saw nearly 3,000 clients with one or more enquiries.
Housing remained one of the biggest issues for clients, although numbers were lower at 1,957 compared to 2,279 in 2023.
CAG noted that there are now other charities such as At Home in Guernsey which specifically deal with homelessness, which may account for the difference.
‘There were no major surprises, we expected to see housing up there,’ said Mrs Marquis.
‘We’re seeing clients with more complex queries, they often have multifaceted queries, and come in with a number of different issues, so the time spent with clients is increasing.’
About of a quarter of all clients had enquiries relating to family matters and housing.
About one fifth had debt, money and work questions, and nearly half had an enquiry related to the law and their rights.
CAG has published the report to bring these issues to the attention of election candidates. It said that since the last election in 2020 it had handled more than 17,000 inquiries – and many of the issues raised could have been addressed by the States.
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