Post by nickd on Feb 15, 2011 23:31:42 GMT 1
For those of you that may not be aware, there is currently a government agenda to more or less eliminate legal aid for those seeking help with a social welfare problem needing the assistance of a specialist. The hardest hit will be the less well off, unfortunately, that could be many out of you out there; - especially if you work in the public sector.
These cuts can affect anyone; - your postman, your children's teacher, your dentist, your policemen & servicemen and yes you. There's a plague of growing redundancies we hear of each day, even the private sector is far from immune, more and more businesses just seem to be going to the wall. We're feeling this in rural and affluent South Devon, I can only imagine how much worse it must be elsewhere.
I've worked as a specialist debt and welfare benefits adviser with the CAB for many years. It's hard work our job, far more than many would care to realize, few of my clients really know what goes on 'behind the scenes' of a busy bureau. It's hard times for us too, our managers are working tirelessly trying to sustain funding so we can help you - the public, the people that turn to us for help. Our volunteers do a superb job of helping people who turn to us for advice. I'll not bore you with the details; your CAB is far from straightforward to run, trust me there's so much to be done.
A fair number of you who turn to us for advice are referred to specialist teams who work under legal aid funding, we've been funded in this way for over ten years, but few people know how we're funded, in truth our clients haven't really needed to know.
In our bureau, we have a great specialist team, they are committed and hard working, yet cheerful and passionate about what they do. They enjoy helping you the public; it's a good job they do - at times like this, as more and more of you are increasingly turning to us for help. I'm quite struck by the increasing magnitude of problems which we see, each day brings it more and more home to us that so many of you need our help. Today I spoke to a client who'd worked all her life and has fallen on hard times, she's on her own and with pride intact, she politely asked me if I could help her get a benefit deduction of £23 per week reduced as she was finding it difficult to live on what she had left, a little over £40 each week. How can anyone live on that? Yet those that tell us how to face up to budgets of austerity would think nothing of spending as much on a bottle of fine wine.
I make no apology for spending a little bit of time with my clients these days to tell them what's happening with all of these government cuts, they look in horror when I tell them our government wants to withdraw legal aid completely from all those seeking help with a benefit problem. It simply strikes me as cruel that government wants to take away this help completely, it's not just help with benefits, it also applies to those seeking help with debt, with housing problems, employment issues and family matters - all are to go or be seriously cut back to the point where advice will only be available at 'crisis' point. What good is that?
I see no sense at all in waiting for people to receive possession notices before they can get help, why wait until your home is at imminent risk? It's plain daft and short sighted to leave it so late.
The reality is many advice agencies will have to close unless we can get this changed. For those of you who think it's just a political statement, I say visit our thread 'justice disappears - advice deserts blossom' and see the growing number of CAB, Legal Advice & Law Centres going to the wall, go on - have a look and see it for yourself.
Go on...
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=frontline&thread=132&page=2#287
We're not a political forum on Mylegal; yet I feel justified and able to say that this government just doesn't seem to care about making people redundant, nor does it seem to care about helping those who may just need to turn to CAB and other advice networks for the first time in their lives. It just thinks everyone should be able to help themselves. It's now all about survival of the fittest, the frail and less capable will either have to learn to stand or they'll fall. Whatever is wrong with giving people a helping hand I ask myself?
When I heard of these cuts, I braced myself for a storm, if anything, I thought government would help us provide more help - not take it away completely, or at best seriously curtail it. There's no logic to this, none at all.
I feel I'm getting political and I'm trying not to be, in truth it's a simple question I ask myself; - does this government show any sign of caring? I'm afraid, I can't see that it does.
Of one thing I'm certain, the 'big society' objective of which our prime minister is so passionate is - I tell you -surely doomed to fail. The reason it won't work is because it relies on volunteers to participate. Now what I know in working with our committed volunteers is they are people who are compassionate and want to help people, but they can't do it all without support. Nor will they want to be part of any initiative which is built only upon cost cutting, they only want it to be part of an initiative which cares.
Tonight, I hear the news, bank profits are up, people at the top of the rung can only climb higher, the rest of us are in danger of falling off the bottom rung. It's those at the bottom who face the worry of looming increases in interest and a week on week increase in their shopping bills, their fuel bills, well let's be honest;-all of their bills. To those facing the loss of their job or who have already fallen victim, I feel truly sorry, no amount of 'empowerment' or 'financial education' is going to help those already in trouble; - they need real and practical help, the kind of help we provide.
This government is saying we'll disable you and then take away your walking stick, it's no way to fuel a big society, government has got it badly wrong;- it's only my humble opinion, but it's one I feel free to express. It is however an opinion based on helping thousands of people, yes thousands.
Well we're a determined lot us advisers, we're more 'big society' than government will ever be. That's why the junior minster of justice Mr Djanogly today announced in Parliament that there had been many responses to the government's plans to wield the axe on Legal Aid, read a few of them here....
ilegal.org.uk/index.cgi?board=responses
You don't need to understand the details, you just need to ask yourself whether this is right or wrong. I'd be surprised if any of you have got as far as Mylegal without having some sense of social justice, to those of you opposed to these reforms, it's time to make a noise. This battle can and will be won, common sense says it has to be, now come on let's be telling people in charge of these decisions to see sense and get real to the need to help others, it's time to show we want a 'caring big society', that's the only one which will ever thrive.
These cuts can affect anyone; - your postman, your children's teacher, your dentist, your policemen & servicemen and yes you. There's a plague of growing redundancies we hear of each day, even the private sector is far from immune, more and more businesses just seem to be going to the wall. We're feeling this in rural and affluent South Devon, I can only imagine how much worse it must be elsewhere.
I've worked as a specialist debt and welfare benefits adviser with the CAB for many years. It's hard work our job, far more than many would care to realize, few of my clients really know what goes on 'behind the scenes' of a busy bureau. It's hard times for us too, our managers are working tirelessly trying to sustain funding so we can help you - the public, the people that turn to us for help. Our volunteers do a superb job of helping people who turn to us for advice. I'll not bore you with the details; your CAB is far from straightforward to run, trust me there's so much to be done.
A fair number of you who turn to us for advice are referred to specialist teams who work under legal aid funding, we've been funded in this way for over ten years, but few people know how we're funded, in truth our clients haven't really needed to know.
In our bureau, we have a great specialist team, they are committed and hard working, yet cheerful and passionate about what they do. They enjoy helping you the public; it's a good job they do - at times like this, as more and more of you are increasingly turning to us for help. I'm quite struck by the increasing magnitude of problems which we see, each day brings it more and more home to us that so many of you need our help. Today I spoke to a client who'd worked all her life and has fallen on hard times, she's on her own and with pride intact, she politely asked me if I could help her get a benefit deduction of £23 per week reduced as she was finding it difficult to live on what she had left, a little over £40 each week. How can anyone live on that? Yet those that tell us how to face up to budgets of austerity would think nothing of spending as much on a bottle of fine wine.
I make no apology for spending a little bit of time with my clients these days to tell them what's happening with all of these government cuts, they look in horror when I tell them our government wants to withdraw legal aid completely from all those seeking help with a benefit problem. It simply strikes me as cruel that government wants to take away this help completely, it's not just help with benefits, it also applies to those seeking help with debt, with housing problems, employment issues and family matters - all are to go or be seriously cut back to the point where advice will only be available at 'crisis' point. What good is that?
I see no sense at all in waiting for people to receive possession notices before they can get help, why wait until your home is at imminent risk? It's plain daft and short sighted to leave it so late.
The reality is many advice agencies will have to close unless we can get this changed. For those of you who think it's just a political statement, I say visit our thread 'justice disappears - advice deserts blossom' and see the growing number of CAB, Legal Advice & Law Centres going to the wall, go on - have a look and see it for yourself.
Go on...
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=frontline&thread=132&page=2#287
We're not a political forum on Mylegal; yet I feel justified and able to say that this government just doesn't seem to care about making people redundant, nor does it seem to care about helping those who may just need to turn to CAB and other advice networks for the first time in their lives. It just thinks everyone should be able to help themselves. It's now all about survival of the fittest, the frail and less capable will either have to learn to stand or they'll fall. Whatever is wrong with giving people a helping hand I ask myself?
When I heard of these cuts, I braced myself for a storm, if anything, I thought government would help us provide more help - not take it away completely, or at best seriously curtail it. There's no logic to this, none at all.
I feel I'm getting political and I'm trying not to be, in truth it's a simple question I ask myself; - does this government show any sign of caring? I'm afraid, I can't see that it does.
Of one thing I'm certain, the 'big society' objective of which our prime minister is so passionate is - I tell you -surely doomed to fail. The reason it won't work is because it relies on volunteers to participate. Now what I know in working with our committed volunteers is they are people who are compassionate and want to help people, but they can't do it all without support. Nor will they want to be part of any initiative which is built only upon cost cutting, they only want it to be part of an initiative which cares.
Tonight, I hear the news, bank profits are up, people at the top of the rung can only climb higher, the rest of us are in danger of falling off the bottom rung. It's those at the bottom who face the worry of looming increases in interest and a week on week increase in their shopping bills, their fuel bills, well let's be honest;-all of their bills. To those facing the loss of their job or who have already fallen victim, I feel truly sorry, no amount of 'empowerment' or 'financial education' is going to help those already in trouble; - they need real and practical help, the kind of help we provide.
This government is saying we'll disable you and then take away your walking stick, it's no way to fuel a big society, government has got it badly wrong;- it's only my humble opinion, but it's one I feel free to express. It is however an opinion based on helping thousands of people, yes thousands.
Well we're a determined lot us advisers, we're more 'big society' than government will ever be. That's why the junior minster of justice Mr Djanogly today announced in Parliament that there had been many responses to the government's plans to wield the axe on Legal Aid, read a few of them here....
ilegal.org.uk/index.cgi?board=responses
You don't need to understand the details, you just need to ask yourself whether this is right or wrong. I'd be surprised if any of you have got as far as Mylegal without having some sense of social justice, to those of you opposed to these reforms, it's time to make a noise. This battle can and will be won, common sense says it has to be, now come on let's be telling people in charge of these decisions to see sense and get real to the need to help others, it's time to show we want a 'caring big society', that's the only one which will ever thrive.