Mylegal articles coming up! Requests welcome

[nickd]

(Updated January 2013)


Firstly, there are some changes coming up on Mylegal very soon so stay tuned! It's something we on the ilegal network have been working on for some time so watch out. We think it will improve your viewing experience and make it easier for you to interact with social welfare specialists and professionals.


More will be announced soon but for now just carry on as you are - and a big thanks to all new members on the forum, our many viewers and those we touch base with on Twitter via Mylegalforum.


It's great to see the interest you've shown in the various posts on Mylegal. This post tells you about those which are currently 'on - going', those of interest from the past and the ones which Mylegal is currently focussing on. You can read and access the newest threads here to get an idea of the range of topics which have been most recently covered, there's a good mix of articles!


You can access the Mylegal main index board here; this is the index board for everything, navigate it to find the thread you want and browse through the different sections until you find what is of interest to you. Do have a look at the site and see what we are all about, this includes the work we are doing in campaigning for the retention of essential legal aid for vital social welfare law services (which typically fund advice agencies, law centres and many CAB's). Contrary to common belief the legal aid battle goes on, we helped to secure legal aid for work in the Upper Tribunal & higher Courts and with thousands of people appealing in the lower Tribunals we are certainly not giving up until we secure it for essential legal help in the lower tier! The battle goes way beyond welfare benefits legal aid but for now that's our current mission on Mylegal and we are out to win it.


Mylegal is part of the very popular Ilegal network founded by Patrick Torsney who's a veritable expert on all things legal aid; he's an ardent social justice campaigner who works pretty much non - stop in pursuit of social justice. You can check out some of the many areas which ilegal covers here; better still you can register but not before you've registered on Mylegal please! Ilegal is for legal professionals who concentrate their expertise on social welfare law such as family, housing, employment, benefits, and debt advice. This is by no means all social welfare covers but in the main these are the larger topics.


Mylegal is the public side of the ilegal forums and we're equally focussed on ensuring we do all we can to ensure access to social justice is maintained in the face of savage government cuts. This affects almost everyone so please have a good think about how you can contribute; it's as much your battle as it is ours. Mylegal engages with you via this forum and on social media via Twitter on the Mylegalforum; please follow by joining in the conversation at the bottom of the page.


Current articles on Mylegal:

• Mylegal report in to the ESA reassessment programme
  
  
• Get savvy with benefit statistics! - all you need to know.
  
  
• Employment & Support Allowance - All the links to regulations, Atos Guidance & case law (very useful for anyone involved with appeals).
  
  
• Benefit fraud - who's cheating who?
  
  
• The latest appeal statistics properly broken down
  
  
• Employment & Support Allowance - from cliff top to torturous tribunal
  

Some old 'favourites'

• The very popular 'Welfare Reform Car Crash'
  
  
• 'Legal aid - Campaign journey'
  
  
• 'Justice disappears - advice deserts blossom'
  (about all the advice agencies facing cuts)
  

What's coming up?


Well lots as always but one thing we won't be giving up on after Government went back on it word after being dealt a 'fatal blow' in the House of Lords' by Lord Bach is to ensure that the State is held to account by due process of law by way of proper legal challenge in the Lower Tribunal. We will continue to fight for amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offender's Act - (which we still call 'LASPO') - our view being that this was a bill which should never have been enacted in to law in the way it was.


It's nothing short of absurd to suggest people can negotiate their way through the complexity of state benefits without proper help. Government has embarked upon a programme of welfare reform which already shows signs of being in deep trouble - it will flag up many problems which require specialist knowledge to help clients resolve. Legal aid funding for this vital work ends in April 2013 and we will continue to make sure that keep up the pressure on Government until it sees sense and acts more responsibly, they had the opportunity to amend the legal aid regulations and went back on their promise to do so. This has infuriated social welfare specialists and puts government in a very bad light as it shows that all along their motivation has been to remove access to justice for those fighting for their benefit appeals - We remain on a mission to get proper regulatory reform.


And finally the WOW petition!....



A petition with a difference....

Holding politicians to account
& asking for a fairer deal....

Want to know more about the WOW petition?


The best way to find out more about the 'WOW' petition is to visit wowpetition.com and find out all about it. You can also join WOW on Twitter using @wowpetition or join via the on-line discussion on wowpetitionchat. There are also links to the petition on Facebook accessible here.


For those of you who just want to go straight to the petition and sign it, just click on the following link:

'Just click & sign here'

If you would like to see a subject covered please tell us more or how about starting a thread of your own?

[theyoungjane]

Please do a topic on how to become a welfare rights adviser... thanks!

[nickd]

Thanks for joining Jane. You've prompted me into resurrecting this thread! I'll certainly try and do a post for viewers on the subject of becoming a welfare rights adviser. In theory we should be much in demand, in practice we are, in reality we are facing extinction in the light of Government's stupid decision to rid us of vital legal aid funding. Our time is therefore divided into carrying out the practical duties in fighting endless appeals on behalf of our clients and campaigning for funding that enables us to do so.

I've tweeted your posts out and will carry on doing so. Being a Bank Holiday its bound to be a bit quiet as far as organisations go. Surely someone out there will show an interest?

[drdwatkins]

Hi Nick- I haven't spent a lot of time in the forum yet but think it might be helpful to perhaps have a short bit of guidance for GPs like me in filling in the forms DWP send us.
I'm sure that doing this bit correctly, or at least well, could possibly have an impact on the whole claims process? Seeing the bit on exceptional circumstances set me thinking. For example if I knew a patient fulfilled those criteria and I made that clear in my submission that would have an impact?
I have had no training or even guidance in 20 years as a doctor in completing forms for DWP.
I doubt any of my colleagues have.
What we are now doing is spending a lot of time supporting patients through the tribunal process. Well; I say a lot of time - clearly it isn't that in comparison with the input I know you and others give.

Dylan

[nickd]

Hi Dylan,

That sounds like an excellent idea. I'll certainly give that some thought with a view to putting something together along the lines of what you suggest.

On a local level some kind of surgery training could perhaps be arranged; would be more than happy to facilitate if you think it a good idea?

Great idea - keep them coming :-)

Best regards

Nick