Post by jman on Sept 8, 2011 23:26:58 GMT 1
Good post from Nat Matthews of Hackney Law Centre on his experience of legal aid
"Frontline Hackney- A day in the life of the Law
A third sector lawyer writes about what makes him mad, sad, and happy to be human
Thursday, 8 September 2011The Small Society
Sam is a bank manager who lost his job in the recession. He owns a house and has debts, we're talking tens of thousands. Pretty soon he's in court facing the loss of his home. His family might be on the street tonight.
He comes to the duty solicitor for help, half an hour before his hearing. It so happens we can help. We can ask the District Judge for an adjournment so that Sam can get a chance to restructure his debts. Creditors will often be reasonable when they see you can't get blood out of a stone.
Samantha lives on an estate a stone's throw from here. She has kids too, and lives on survival benefits. She too owes money for a benefit overpayment of thousands, that is being clawed back at £10 a week. When you're living on the breadline that can make a huge difference.
Here again we can do something. We can ask the District Judge to give us time, and make an offer of £5 on the repayments.
My hope is that once Sam and Samantha are back in court again, we will have done deals with their creditors, repayment schedules will have been renegotiated over a longer time-scale, and two families will keep a roof over their head.
That is what rocks my boat, day after day. Keeping people in homes, and off the streets. What's more, Legal Aid pays us to help these two families, regardless of class and colour.
Actually, if the Legal Aid Bill goes through, this won't be true .
In the new Bill I'm allowed to tell the benefit authority that Samantha can only spend 48 p a week on shampoo, but if I have incontrovertible proof that she doesn't owe the money at all, my hands are tied.
Even if I know that I could persuade the benefits authorities that they have misinterpreted the regulations, the words are not allowed to leave my lips. Knowledge of the benefit regulations will no longer be funded by Legal Aid, because the new regime will be so easy to use, so transparent, that knowledge of the law will be an expensive inconvenience.
Put baldly, the Coalition has specifically removed any process invoking welfare benefits legislation from Legal Aid funding. because it's so pure and simple any fool can learn it, apparently.
Sam and Samantha have both been bamboozled. Few Sams will qualify for Legal Aid because once they were rich, and now are poor. Few Samanthas will qualify, for they will have no access to proper benefits advice, at least not from me.
In Hackney 64% of people receiving social welfare advice will lose it- that's at least 5,000. In Liverpool the number is 80%.
Our society isn't looking very big now. It seems very small.
Posted by Nathaniel Mathews at 13:42 Email This
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frontlinehackney.blogspot.com/2011/09/small-society.html
"Frontline Hackney- A day in the life of the Law
A third sector lawyer writes about what makes him mad, sad, and happy to be human
Thursday, 8 September 2011The Small Society
Sam is a bank manager who lost his job in the recession. He owns a house and has debts, we're talking tens of thousands. Pretty soon he's in court facing the loss of his home. His family might be on the street tonight.
He comes to the duty solicitor for help, half an hour before his hearing. It so happens we can help. We can ask the District Judge for an adjournment so that Sam can get a chance to restructure his debts. Creditors will often be reasonable when they see you can't get blood out of a stone.
Samantha lives on an estate a stone's throw from here. She has kids too, and lives on survival benefits. She too owes money for a benefit overpayment of thousands, that is being clawed back at £10 a week. When you're living on the breadline that can make a huge difference.
Here again we can do something. We can ask the District Judge to give us time, and make an offer of £5 on the repayments.
My hope is that once Sam and Samantha are back in court again, we will have done deals with their creditors, repayment schedules will have been renegotiated over a longer time-scale, and two families will keep a roof over their head.
That is what rocks my boat, day after day. Keeping people in homes, and off the streets. What's more, Legal Aid pays us to help these two families, regardless of class and colour.
Actually, if the Legal Aid Bill goes through, this won't be true .
In the new Bill I'm allowed to tell the benefit authority that Samantha can only spend 48 p a week on shampoo, but if I have incontrovertible proof that she doesn't owe the money at all, my hands are tied.
Even if I know that I could persuade the benefits authorities that they have misinterpreted the regulations, the words are not allowed to leave my lips. Knowledge of the benefit regulations will no longer be funded by Legal Aid, because the new regime will be so easy to use, so transparent, that knowledge of the law will be an expensive inconvenience.
Put baldly, the Coalition has specifically removed any process invoking welfare benefits legislation from Legal Aid funding. because it's so pure and simple any fool can learn it, apparently.
Sam and Samantha have both been bamboozled. Few Sams will qualify for Legal Aid because once they were rich, and now are poor. Few Samanthas will qualify, for they will have no access to proper benefits advice, at least not from me.
In Hackney 64% of people receiving social welfare advice will lose it- that's at least 5,000. In Liverpool the number is 80%.
Our society isn't looking very big now. It seems very small.
Posted by Nathaniel Mathews at 13:42 Email This
BlogThis!
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frontlinehackney.blogspot.com/2011/09/small-society.html
