Post by spongebob on Dec 3, 2010 14:57:31 GMT 1
Ms M is Polish and does not speak or read English very well. She has lived in Britain since November 2005 with her husband and worked as a cleaner and then ran their own business - a small Polish food shop - between 2007 and 2009, but unfortunately the business did not succeed. She has a two year old child. Due to domestic violence last year she split up from her husband (who had always dealt with all paperwork for her) and worked hard at several low-paid part-time jobs to pay the bills. Eventually she managed to claim Child Benefit and Tax Credits, but was unable to claim Housing or Council Tax benefits because she did not apply to become a Registered Worker under the Workers Registration Scheme (she had been told in 2007 that the self-employed did not have to register as workers). This meant she couldn’t afford to feed her child and pay the council tax and rent on her flat and so arrears rose.
She was served with notices and court proceedings but could not understand them and didn’t know what to do. An eviction was scheduled in September 2010 and when the bailiff arrived she had nowhere to go. Because of her language difficulties she had not even realised that she had to leave that day and broke down. A friend called a local councillor in desperation. He had connections with the local CAB and persuaded the bailiff to give her 24 hours to get advice. Following urgent telephone advice from the LSC-funded housing solicitor a court hearing was set in 2 days time. Even though she had a young daughter the local authority declined to provide any temporary accommodation at this point as the law stated she was still ineligible for homelessness assistance due to her non-registration.
At the hearing the judge had no general discretion to stop the eviction, but the LSC solicitor identified a technical flaw in the papers around whether a deposit had been properly lodged and the case was therefore adjourned for evidence until November, buying a vital breathing space.
In the interim Ms M was assisted in making an application to become a registered worker. After a few weeks this was successful and this meant that she could claim housing benefit and also have access to local authority emergency housing. Just before the adjourned hearing she was offered a tenancy by the local authority and a consent order giving her time to move was agreed with the landlord.
Had Ms M been correctly advised to register when her business closed, none of this would have occurred. But had she not received intensive and specialist legal aid-funded help at the point of eviction, it is likely that her child would have been placed in care as the family were street-homeless that day.
Although the government will say this type of case will stay in scope, if the 10% pay cut reforms go through the solicitor service will no longer be available; it is barely viable for the CAB to run it on present rates. Civil housing pay rates have been frozen for the last 16 years!
She was served with notices and court proceedings but could not understand them and didn’t know what to do. An eviction was scheduled in September 2010 and when the bailiff arrived she had nowhere to go. Because of her language difficulties she had not even realised that she had to leave that day and broke down. A friend called a local councillor in desperation. He had connections with the local CAB and persuaded the bailiff to give her 24 hours to get advice. Following urgent telephone advice from the LSC-funded housing solicitor a court hearing was set in 2 days time. Even though she had a young daughter the local authority declined to provide any temporary accommodation at this point as the law stated she was still ineligible for homelessness assistance due to her non-registration.
At the hearing the judge had no general discretion to stop the eviction, but the LSC solicitor identified a technical flaw in the papers around whether a deposit had been properly lodged and the case was therefore adjourned for evidence until November, buying a vital breathing space.
In the interim Ms M was assisted in making an application to become a registered worker. After a few weeks this was successful and this meant that she could claim housing benefit and also have access to local authority emergency housing. Just before the adjourned hearing she was offered a tenancy by the local authority and a consent order giving her time to move was agreed with the landlord.
Had Ms M been correctly advised to register when her business closed, none of this would have occurred. But had she not received intensive and specialist legal aid-funded help at the point of eviction, it is likely that her child would have been placed in care as the family were street-homeless that day.
Although the government will say this type of case will stay in scope, if the 10% pay cut reforms go through the solicitor service will no longer be available; it is barely viable for the CAB to run it on present rates. Civil housing pay rates have been frozen for the last 16 years!
