Post by nickd on Sept 7, 2011 22:20:43 GMT 1
Justice disappears absolutely everywhere
Despite all the talk of austerity, constant mention of 'broken Britain and economic gloom, some sights will never change. There's no doubt about it, our country is a very beautiful and awe inspiring place.
But beyond the beauty there are problems caused by our fiscal collapse and by longer term social deprivation. Problems caused by wide-scale job cuts, changes in healthcare, social services, education, changes in welfare benefit entitlements, the ever rising cost of living, housing, family matters and the thousands of people who find themselves in the highest ever levels of recorded personal debt; - they are all problems which require solutions.
Advice agencies and law centres are a key plank in empowering people to find solutions to their problems, but they now find themselves faced with severe cutbacks which will force some to close or to severely cut back the service they already struggle to provide through inadequate resources.
Here we take a trip around England and Wales and look at different areas of the country from Land's End to Hadrian's Wall and list how these areas are facing the most savage cut backs in funding they've ever seen.
Enjoy the journey but look beyond the pictures and imagine how difficult this will make it for people who've had to rely on legal aid funded advice services, we've listed the numbers of people who will find they can no longer get legal aid in each area and the extent of the cuts in percentages. But please remember we are referring to cuts in social welfare legal aid; - it's the hardest hit of all the cuts.
Here's what the figures mean - Example (100) is the number of people who won't get legal aid - 100% is the percentage rate of the cutback in legal aid funding in the area and the figure in £'s is the amount of money the agencies in each area will lose in legal aid funding.
London
Barnet - (1237) - 60% - £226,410.8
Bexley (668) - 67% - £122,572
Brent (2892) - 67% - £511,030.8
Bromley (540) - 57% - £101,242.4
Camden (2701) - 67% - £485,661.6
City of Westminster (1436) - 61% - £259,774
Croydon ( 1283) - 68% - £236,302
Ealing (5490) - 72% - £1,016,550
Enfield (564) - 62% - £106,235.6
Greenwich (1070) - 63% - £192,820
Hackney & C (5315) - 64% - £950,845.2
Hammersmith & Fulham (953) - 60% - £173,940
Haringey (1557) - 62% - £278,005.2
Harrow (1248) - 67% - £ 225,469.6
Havering (976) 66% £176,324.4
Hillingdon (987) 61% £183,468
Hounslow (499) 57% - £94,353.2
Islington (1413) - 59% - £260,300
Kensington & Chelsea (1903) -75% - £343,989.6
Kingston & Richmond (962) 69% - £177,913.2
Lambeth (1824) - 58% - £325,364
Lewisham (628) - 59% - £117,054.4
Merton & Sutton (1509) - 70% £284,023.6
Newham (3810) - 65% - £686,587.6
Redbridge (1023) - 64% - £188,569.6
Southwark (1640) - 62% - £293,402.4
Tower Hamlets (3674) - 70% - £660,293.6
Waltham Forest (1266) - 69% - £231,399.2
Wandsworth (2140) - 62% - £ 380,502.4
London totals
51206 people no longer able to get legal aid
65% average cut in funding to agencies
Loss of legal aid funding £929,0404.4[/b]
