Post by nickd on Mar 2, 2012 22:23:11 GMT 1
The final stage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offender's Bill [LASPO] is to be decided this week.
LASPO is a ticking time bomb - if it passes in to legislation, the impact will be far more catastrophic than you realise, there's still time to do something - it all helps - but time is running out so act today rather than tomorrow. We want you to contact peers and MP's NOW via the national campaign teams.
You can go straight to the Justice for All campaign here
www.justice-for-all.org.uk/News/Invite-your-MP-to-Legal-Aid-debate-next-week
Or the Sound off for Justice campaign here to contact your MP soundoffforjustice.org/lobby-your-mp
For those who want to know more about why we want you take this action please read what we have to say.
LASPO will bring about the death of social welfare legal aid
What we are talking about is the death of Legal Aid for those with a social welfare law problem; - it's of vital importance to thousands of people - yet very few people have been made aware of how it will impact upon people.
Once Legal Aid for those with a social welfare problem goes - it will be gone forever - justice for those who need it most will simply disappear.
Abolishing social welfare legal aid has been hushed up
The passage of LASPO has been rushed and hushed through Parliament, many of you will not know what it is all about.
That's why we launched the SHUSH campaign - you can still hear what no one really wants to talk about.
LASPO has been kept far too quiet. Here's a chance to read our 'SHUSH' campaign leaflet and hear what no one seems to want to talk about - read it because no one seems to want to listen to those who will be hardest hit. Learn how it could affect you; no-one is immune from illness, life changing disability, redundancy, paying back debts you can no longer afford or having to do battle with the authorities to secure your most basic rights.
Read 'SHUSH' here downloads.ilegal.org.uk/shush.pdf
The SHUSH link take you to all you need to know - learn how well over half a million of the most vulnerable individuals in society will no longer be able to access legal aid in sorting out matters of crucial importance. You can access links to many of the 5,000 key organisations and individuals who told the Ministry of Justice it made no sense to cut social welfare legal aid.
The Ministry of Justice tells everyone that we can no longer afford to keep legal aid at a cost of £2.1 billion pounds per year, it reminds us how it costs £39 per head of population to pay the legal aid bill and needs to make cuts of £350 million per year. The Ministry of Justice doesn't tell you that the majority of cuts are falling in social welfare legal aid by up to 100%.
Even the Government keeps the changes to legal aid quiet on its very own 'open justice' website; - it just tells you all about offending & punishment open.justice.gov.uk/home/ - ironically, the open justice site will tell you prison doesn't always work; - it explains how we need to reduce the cycle of repeat re-offending and gives examples of better help in communities for prisoners upon their release. All the major public focus on LASPO has been about crime & punishment, with very mention over how legal aid plays a key part in creating a decent social welfare fabric. Crime is often linked to social deprivation factors - social welfare legal aid helps to keep crime down.
Social welfare legal aid is a minor fraction of the overall expenditure on legal aid. [/u]
Social welfare law is by far the smallest portion of the legal aid budget, yet it stands to be the most savagely cut.
Once these cuts are made; - we really will only be left with a few crumbs on the plate for social welfare legal aid - it just won't be enough.
Use this link to find out more about how the legal aid bill is apportioned; you will see that once these cuts are made social welfare legal aid will become practically become non - existent. mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=459
The abolition of social welfare legal aid will affect someone you know and care about in your area.
This centre was opened in Cambridge with warm praise from the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King in 2010 for the work of the CAB - it is now under serious threat. [/b]
Advice agencies and law centres have already closed and more will follow. The Ilegal/Mylegal team gathered a lot of the information compiled by the Guardian in their 'Cutswatch' coverage by feeding in details of advice sector closures - it can be found in the voluntary sector and Citizens Advice Bureau sections and the data blog section on legal aid cuts.
For more details of the legal aid cuts on the Guardian data blog www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/21/legal-aid-justice-cuts
Mylegal guide - justice disappearing everywhere
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=449
People putting the case for social welfare legal aid
Those battling the severest of disability
Those who have serious disabilities and cannot get their benefits without support
Those who say legal aid cuts are disproportionate and will affect the people who need it most
What our top judges are saying
Our top barristers sound off for justice
Justice for all - the start of the campaign
What our supportive Peers in The House of Lord's say about the work we do.
War on welfare & Legal Aid
What we want is justice for all of our social welfare clients. With untried welfare reforms, a nation in debt, rising prices forcing people in to situations where they may lose all they possess, the highest unemployment figures we have seen for years & the threat of redundancy ever hanging over our heads; - this is no time to make cuts of any kind in this essential area of our legal aid system.
If these reforms are not contested right to the end, what we will see is our LASPO ticking time bomb resulting in an absolute explosion in the numbers of cases where people will flounder in their battles against the State - with no one able to give them any legal assistance or help them to put things right - ultimately it will cost far more to rectify the damage than it would to make these cuts.
Help us to contest these reforms NOW - so we can carrying on doing what we do best - helping those who need it most.
Here are the links you need:
You can go straight to the Justice for All campaign here
www.justice-for-all.org.uk/News/Invite-your-MP-to-Legal-Aid-debate-next-week
Or the Sound off for Justice campaign here to contact your MP soundoffforjustice.org/lobby-your-mp
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More useful links
A five point fact sheet about legal aid is available from false economy.
falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-legal-aid-bill
A summary of Justice for All's relevant wording can be found on the Rightsnet website with a link to download the J4A briefing paper
www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/1639/P90/#11174
Channel 4 Fact Check - Legal Aid reforms won't protect the needy
www.youtube.com/user/ILEGALTEAM#g/u