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13-10-2006
Proposed major changes to the legal aid system could leave thousands of people without adequate access to legal representation, says national charity Citizens Advice. The charity is concerned that some bureaux who currently provide legal aid funded services will find it impossible to continue, and have raised their concerns in a response to the LSC consultation on contract changes, which ends today.
The proposed changes, first laid out in Lord Carter’s review published in July, include paying all those who do legal aid work a fixed fee per case. Funding this would mean paying someone working on a legal aid case the same fee whether they spend two or twenty hours helping the client. The fixed fee system would not only be applied to lawyers but also to hundreds of specialist workers working for Citizens Advice under LSC (Legal Services Commission) contracts.
The move to fixed fees for the work which local Citizens Advice Bureaux do in the legal aid system will limit the amount of help advisers can give their clients. Advisers may only be able to spend to as little as two hours per client in order to earn enough to cover their salaries. Many cases take much more time to resolve and the changes could force workers to turn complicated cases down. Last year Citizens Advice Bureaux helped people deal with nearly 300,000 legal problems.
David Harker, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice said:
“The Citizens Advice service work with thousands of people each year, often many who are vulnerable and find themselves in complicated legal situations but cannot afford legal representation. These are the exact people legal aid is supposed to support, but many cases cannot be solved in only a few hours. The proposed system of rigid fixed fees could mean our staff would not be able to spend enough time with those clients who need most help to resolve their issues properly, and we may be forced to turn people away with complicated legal problems.
“Everyone has a fundamental right to fair treatment under our legal system regardless of their income and any proposed changes must ensure that this is remains the case. Before these changes are implemented we want to see further policy and strategy work particularly on how the most disadvantaged people and rural areas will be served, and further research on case costs, process and the likely impact of fixed fees in the voluntary sector.”
Another proposal includes advice agencies being remunerated three months in arrears, effectively forcing them to subsidise the supply of public services. This goes against the Governments own guidance on funding and working with the third sector. Citizens Advice has asked that the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee review these proposals.
The Law Society estimate that as many as 800 law practices may abandon legal aid as a result of these proposals, equivalent to a quarter of all current providers of legal aid advice. Citizens Advice is concerned that this will exacerbate the problem further.
For the last ten years individual Citizens Advice Bureaux have taken on LSC contracts to enable them to deliver specialist advice to their clients. Without this funding many bureaux would not be able to offer specialist services. Today 252 bureaux have LSC contracts and employ nearly 590 specialist advisers to work on those contracts. Citizens Advice believes that access to justice is best served through a diversity of providers and multiple points of entry into the legal help system.
Citizens Advice is a member of the Access to Justice Alliance, which includes other agencies including Age Concern England, Liberty and Housing Justice.  www.accesstojusticealliance.org.uk
CASE STUDIES
A housing case from a CAB in the South East took 15 hours of staff assistance to resolve. The client was on incapacity benefit, suffering from depression and anxiety and due to mental health problems was unable to pay her rent. Her local authority told her that she was not entitled to housing benefit, and was being threatened with homelessness. The CAB worker initiated a multi-agency response to challenge the local authority’s decision which included working under the LSC contract and involving all those involved in the client’s recovery. Eventually the local authority agreed that that the capital owned by the client was below the limit and after three months awarded the client housing benefit and council tax benefit. The caseworker also negotiated a tenancy deposit and the first rent payment for the client’s accommodation.
A welfare benefits case in a CAB in the North West took 11 hours of staff assistance to resolve. The client was a single parent with three children who had multiple health problems. She received lots of help from her family because of her physical and mental disabilities and the support of a mental health practitioner via her GP. The Department for Work and Pensions said they were reviewing her disability living allowance (DLA). The client couldn’t cope and contacted her CAB, who contacted her GP and mental health practitioner for supportive evidence. Following the review the client was awarded a lower rate mobility component, but the caseworker believed she had grounds for an award of the care component on top. The caseworker helped the client prepare for the hearing by collating additional evidence and the appeal was successful, which increased her income.
Notes to editors:
- The Citizens Advice service is a network of independent charities that helps people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers. For more information in England and Wales see www.citizensadvice.org.uk
- The advice provided by the Citizens Advice service is free, independent, confidential, and impartial, and available to everyone regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age or nationality.
- Most Citizens Advice service staff are trained volunteers, working at over 3,300 locations across England and Wales.
- Advice and information www.adviceguide.org.uk
- Volunteer hotline 08451 264264 (local rate)
- Citizens Advice Guide to your rights, second edition: January 2008 - over 600 pages of practical, independent CAB advice. An invaluable resource for any bookshelf - available from all good bookshops; price £11.99; ISBN: 9780141034089
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