If the proposed cuts to legal aid are implemented, the Government risks losing us money in addition to denying the poorest and most vulnerable of our society legal representation.
Legal aid is funding provided by the government to give those without the means, access to legal advice. It costs the government an estimated £2.2 billion a year, though this in turn is a mere 13% of annual UK legal expenditure, the remainder of which goes to private firms. It is also equivalent to just two weeks public funding for the NHS, as highlighted by the Justice for All campaign.In their bid to reduce the fiscal deficit, the Ministry of Justice proposes to slash the legal aid budget by 15%, making a saving of £350 million. Practically, this will mean that 18 of the 57 law centres around the country may have to permanently close their doors.However, the cuts may prove to be a false economy. In a recent report from the Citizens Advice, for every £1 spent on legal aid, the state saves £8.80 on benefits, £7.13 on employment and £2.34 on housing advice, to give a few examples.
Under the current proposals, the areas which would no longer be funded by legal aid would include employment law, most housing and family law (excluding homelessness and domestic violence), debt advice, and immigration law.The Ministry of Justice estimates that this will leave between 455,000 and 505,000 people without access to legal advice in these areas. The Legal Aid Group argues that the figure could be much higher.Walk-in law centres, such as the Migrants Resource Centre, have provided a lifeline to many who see the legal system as a foreign language, not least migrants and asylum seekers. To lose them would therefore have a huge adverse impact on our society.
The Immigration Law Practitioners Association has expressed concern for a while over current pay structures and funding regimes in legal aid. In their response to the Government’s consultation paper on the proposed cuts, they state that the new proposals present a ‘grave threat’ to the availability and quality of work. Figures from 2009 Migrants Rights Network reports reveal that 37% of all appeals regarding Home Office immigration and asylum decisions were allowed. Without the right advice, those appeals would not have been granted, adversely affecting the lives of thousands of families in the UK. Migrants are not the only members of our society who could be affected, however. Employment, family and housing law are all pervasive areas; the restriction of access may leave a wide range of people without legal redress, particularly those who are already vulnerable.
In addition to saving money, the Ministry of Justice cites ‘unnecessary litigation’ as a reason for the cuts. It claims legal aid has expanded into too many areas of law, encouraging people to resolve their problems through the courts rather than seek out alternative solutions. The problem is that there may not be any ‘alternative solutions’ for many people seeking to rely on legal aid. Since the beginning of the law centre movement, over 40 years ago, service provision has expanded, but only in response to need.In place of advice centres the government proposes to introduce telephone helplines for legal aid funded advice: Operators would assess a caller’s eligibility before transferring them to an advisor. While this may be an efficient way of dealing with relatively clear cut cases, more complex matters may find themselves lost in bureaucracy.The Ministry of Justice argues that cuts will be mitigated by, amongst other things, cases being taken on by the community advice sector. However, volunteers, who make up a large section of the workforce in advice centres, are already strained. Without professional support they will not have the capacity to deal with the volume and complexity of many cases, and it is unlikely that pro bono efforts will help to shoulder much of the burden.
In essence, the Government’s proposed cuts to legal aid would prove a false economy. The Chancellor has recently admitted the need to revise the economy’s expected growth figures amid fears of a double-dip recession. It is exactly in such financially strained times that ‘the big society’ needs to become a reality, by providing the most vulnerable with access to the legal advice that is rightfully theirs. Only by doing this we can achieve social and financial stability.
By Anna Bowsher
