Legal Aid 5
The Cuts Biting Already
2013 will go down as a disastrous year for the Legal Aid system.
The introduction of LASPO decimated a system which had been
designed to protect the most vulnerable in society from abuses of
power being brought against them by the State. The dismantling of
Legal Aid was rapid and devastating. In response the Low
Commission was set up to monitor the immediate effects on social
welfare law (welfare benefits, debt and housing.)
In its report, published on 9 January 2014 the commission called
for a national strategy for advice and legal support, to replace the
current piecemeal approach, which is failing to protect the poorest
and most vulnerable. It also calls for a £100m implementation
fund – with half the money coming from central government, and
half raised from other sources, including a levy on payday loan
companies.
Lord Low said ‘Our report makes sobering reading and we are
calling on political parties of all stripes to recognise the need to
act before we reach crisis point. All around the country we found
advice agencies buckling under the strain, and ordinary people left
with nowhere to turn.’
The full text of the report can be found on the website
www.lowcommission.org.uk. It makes sobering reading that across
the country advice agencies are struggling.
Our experience in Liverpool is that we are already at crisis point.
The Access to Justice Committee of Liverpool Law Society was
invited to contribute material to a motion debated by Liverpool
City Council on Wednesday 15th January. The text of the motion
set out
“Council therefore requests the Chief Executive write to the
Secretary of State for Justice requesting that …
in response to the recently published Low