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Research reveals early impact of legal aid cuts on advice workers
‘A study by the University of Liverpool found that 91 per cent of charity advice workers believe that they are providing a lower level of service following cuts to legal aid.
It found that the new reality for advice-giving charities in one of the UK’s most deprived areas is that welfare reforms have increased demand for their services, and they cannot meet the ever-growing need ...’
More @ http://news.liv.ac.uk/2013/06/13/research-reveals-early-impact-of-legal-aid-cuts/
Fom civilsociety.co.uk:
‘Leading advice services are being forced to cut back on face-to-face support and place more emphasis on digital and telephone services, a roundtable discussion of advice charity leaders revealed yesterday.
Held under Chatham House rule, chief executives and senior figures from leading advice-giving charities discussed at the event held by New Philanthropy Capital how they can do more with less in light of statutory funding cuts and an increased.
Last year Shelter was forced to close one-third of its face-to-face services, and lost 75 of its staff. Around the table, this retraction of face-to-face services was echoed, with a number of speakers advising of severe waiting lists, cuts to services and a move to digital or telephone services as alternatives.
One organisation said that the waiting list for its face-to-face services currently stood at five weeks, while another advised that it could only answer 60 per cent of its phone calls. Meanwhile there was consensus that demand was increasing heavily…’