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This company has recently been brought to my attention:
www.benefitanswers.co.uk
Thier website suggests they are more knowledgeable and reasonable than those we've previously seen (e.g. http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=4091&mesg_id=4091&page=)
I have come across legitimate and experienced advisers providing this sort of service before and I'm sat on the fence regarding the ethics of charging for benefit advice and have even considered doing it myself (given the fact that the legal services commission seem determined to see the end of publicly funded civil legal help I might still consider it...).
Anyway, what interests me about this company is that they charge a flat 45% of backpay with, apparently, no upper limit.
I'm dealing with a case at the moment for which I expect my client to receive around £17,500 in arrears of mortgage interest help (possibly more)and I anticipate the work will take a total of 30 hours. If I took 45% of the arrears, that would equate to £262.50 an hour.
If the DWP had not made the usual cock-up of everything, the work would have been done in around 13 hours, which would equate to £605 an hour.
In another example, I secured - in less than one hour's work - DLA arrears of over £6000. That equates to £2700 per hour!
Any thoughts?
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