Rights, Welfare and Law. Legal Aid Advocacy in Austerity Britain

A new short report from London School of Economics looks at Rights, Welfare and Law. Legal Aid Advocacy in Austerity Britain.

The findings of the report are based on a study of civil legal aid cases as they progress from initial consultations in the offices of two London legal service providers to their resolution.

The authors note that the LASPO Bill retains legal aid cover for people threatened with impending homelessness. However, this may well create a perverse incentive to allow problems to compound and escalate until eligibility conditions are fulfilled. They note that tackling problems at such a late stage is much more difficult (if not indeed impossible) and the costs in human and financial terms far greater.

Recommendations include:

* In order to prevent perverse incentives to delay the addressing of problems until they are eventually deemed eligible for legal aid, legal aid cover should be retained for all welfare benefits appeals.
* Since much legally aided work is the result of systemic failure in government offices, a ‘polluter pays’ clause on the organisations in question should be introduced to subsidise cost burdens.
* Legal aid cover for debt, housing and welfare benefit appeals should be retained for disadvantaged young people between the ages of 18 and 25.
* Legal aid cover for debt, housing and welfare benefit appeals should be retained for people diagnosed with severe mental illness even if their income will be above the new, stricter thresholds.
* Ideally the scope of legal aid cover should be drastically cut only after the new Universal Credit system has been implemented.

Copy of the report is attached as I can’t get the link to work.