Post by nickd on Mar 7, 2012 21:40:08 GMT 1
Living with LASPO - it's been an uphill struggle
Why I think its been worth it
LASPO is a subject heading which probably means little, if anything, to anyone unless they know what this is all about. There are umpteen articles on the Mylegal and Ilegal forums, as well as thousands of tweets on Twitter and no end of internet blogs, it's been in the papers, on the news and it has been the subject of endless debates right up to and beyond parliament. Unless you've lived with LASPO for the last year or so, you won't have the first clue as to what this is all about and why we have battled against it so hard.
As a welfare benefit & debt specialist working for the Citizens Advice Bureau in the South Hams in Devon, I was all too aware that we were reaching a crunch point as the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offender's bill (it's a bit of mouthful so we call it 'LASPO' for short) reached the 'report stages' in the House of Lord's this week. It's been a real uphill struggle; but we have achieved some major results this week. I know it's not over yet, there's more to come and always the threat that government might seek to overturn the good results which we achieved in the House of Lords when peers opposed government and gave them a clear message that they value the importance of legal aid in social welfare law cases.
As far as LASPO and I was concerned, this week was crucially important. The bill has already been through the House of Commons. Many of us LASPO fanatics know that if the bill passes through the report stages in the House of Lords it will go on to receive Royal Assent; - in short it becomes law. We all know that LASPO will be passed, we don't have a problem with the passing of new laws; - providing they are good laws. Regrettably, we think a lot of LASPO just isn't right; - we know that if it is passed it will become very damaging to the rights of the clients we help and to broader society as a whole. No one benefits from an unjust set of rules in the long run; - you always end up paying to rectify the damage caused by poor law. The report stages in the House of Lords allow changes or 'amendments' to be made to the bill. It enables peers to make the best of a bad set of laws, - we know it will never be perfect, very few laws are.
Some of the most recent amendments became very important to me this week, these were amendments 11 and 12; - together they make provision for legal aid to reinstated in to bill and to be available for welfare benefit cases which could end up in our lower and upper tribunals. Much of the work we do in our office is in helping our clients through the appeal process, we do so with very good results. There are a record number of appeal cases going through our Tribunals at the moment.
You can read more about the number of appeals and results we achieve here.
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=558
For those who want to know more about LASPO in general, have a read of this, it tells you why I felt compelled to do my bit to defuse what I call the LASPO 'ticking time bomb'. Make no mistake; - if we don't do all we can to take the worst out of the bill the results will be truly catastrophic for many.
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=593
This week brought us to a point where we would find out if any of our hard work had paid off. Living with LASPO has been a long journey, it started back in October 2010 when we first learned legal aid for social welfare was due to be slashed savagely following the Comprehensive Spending Reviews. It was incomprehensible that out of a £2.1 billion pound a year legal budget; government chose make £350 million pounds od cuts all in social welfare legal aid services we provide. The proportion of the £350 million cuts we actually receive for welfare benefit and debt work is a pittance when compared with other elements of government expenditure.
Here's how the legal aid cake gets sliced up - you can see how they are - once these cuts are made - leaving us with just a few crumbs on the plate - it's simply not enough.
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=459
I along with many others have campaigned vigorously, it's been really hard work and remember its all work which has been carried out alongside the legal aid day job; - it's been more than a torturous journey at times.
Read more about the campaign journey; - from the start to where we are now.
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=campaign&action=display&thread=316
I've lost count of the thousands of posts which have gone up on the Mylegal and Ilegal forums; - all the meetings, briefings, emails, phone calls, hours of thought, researching and preparing presentations to try and convince people in power that we are talking proper economic sense, our argument is also that which is morally by the far the strongest case.
There are few who really understand how much work goes in to all of this. Mylegal launched itself in to the world of Twitter last August. One of the articles over which I am most proud is one which I called the welfare reform car crash - I called it this for a very good reason; - it's precisely what it is set to be unless people are helped. We also have a vital role to play in influencing policy-makers where we can show the authorities they are getting it wrong.
You can join the 51,000 plus who have viewed the car crash - you'll need stamina though, it's a long read.
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=405
All of this campaigning was going along alongside all sorts of other challenges;- not least keeping a busy office running, dealing with the multitude of complexities clients from all walks of life bring with them (no two ever being the same) coping with a relentless wave of 'efficiency' measures introduced by our funders the Legal Services Commission, keeping abreast with fast changing legislation and participating in sub committees in an effort to try and help find more suitable office accommodation, dealing with financial constraints which sadly forced redundancies within my team; - I cannot think of a greater number of obstacles which could have been placed in our way. Let no one tell you that legal aid casework and supervising is in any way a cushy number, I can assure you it is most certainly not.
Despite all of this, I continue to love the job I do, not least because of the great team of people I work with; - all who do their bit to keep the wheels of social justice turning for the clients we bend over backwards to help. My team and I are good at our job, we've helped around 6,000 people under the legal aid scheme and are a well regarded source of advice. We all get immense satisfaction from helping people resolve their complicated problems, it's work of a specialist nature which few of our volunteers want to do, they have more than enough on their plates in dealing with our front line general advice enquiries. In our office the specialists compliment the general advice team.
However, in this campaign the people who most struck me were those I do not get to see. It became clear to me that there was a multitude of people whose only lifeline was the internet, they clearly lived in fear of welfare reform and it struck me they were frightened out of their minds by a cruel media and public who wanted to brand them fakers, scroungers and fraudsters. It was with great admiration that I watched these late night internet warriors on mylegal, I'd like to think the site did some good in helping them realise we were on their side. They bravely grouped together and took on a battle of their own by lobbying the Lords for responsible welfare reform, the Lords were on their side; - but government later overturned them in the House of Commons on the grounds of 'financial privilege'; - government's reversal doesn't detract from the great work Spartacus did in raising awareness over the need for more sensible welfare reform. They called their campaign 'Spartacus'. It was a crucial tool in raising awareness amongst the Lords over the perils of some elements of untried and tested attempts to reform the welfare state.
Here's more about the Spartacus campaign:
mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=549
Along my LASPO journey, I've come across a good few internet warriors, not least the following:
Ilegal's Patrick Torsney
I first met Patrick at one of his excellent 'effective supervisor' courses in Birmingham. There's not much he doesn't know about legal aid contracting and what you'll learn from one of his courses is you won't get away without participating! He reminded me a little of a teacher from my school days, one who went round the class asking pupils for answers, if your answer doesn't ring with the question, rest assured Patrick will challenge you. He's a good teacher - I learned a lot from that day in Birmingham.
Alongside's Patrick's extensive knowledge on legal aid contracting, his other passion is the promotion of social justice. It wasn't long before I found myself drawn into the Ilegal network. I subsequently got invited to help run Mylegal; - to be honest it's been an absolute pleasure, although sometimes I'd be the first to admit it's probably become something of an obsession! It's been great to be part of the ilegal network, you know you are amongst friends who all have something in common; - we all care passionately about social justice. The Ilegal lot are a good bunch; - they've done a great deal to promote the importance of social justice - more than many of you will ever know.
If your thing is legal aid, you'd do well to look in on Ilegal, it will point you in the right direction and tell all you need to know. Find out more here
ilegal.org.uk/
Justice for All
The Justice for All team has done a great deal to promote our cause. I really take my hat off to them for all the work they've put in and for their efforts in preparing some excellent briefings as well as coordinating people from all around the country to lobby their MP's and for their sterling work on the 'Pair up with a Peer' campaign. They have had a massive challenge on their hands, trying to influence policy makers is no easy task; - what's more they have done all they have on a restricted budget. Unlike our commercial counterparts the voluntary sector is not blessed with huge resources for national campaign work.
The Justice for All campaign has gained a lot of attention in Parliament and they should be complimented on their professional approach to campaigning. They've put forward the argument is a respectful way whilst maintaining a sense of dignity; - not reverting to cheap gimmicks and stunts. This LASPO stuff is emotive to us social welfare bods, but the Justice for All team have kept it clean and for that I think they should be very much admired. We're a little less restrained on Mylegal/Ilegal and thankfully that's allowed us say what we feel. We're not being political when we criticise the politicians who want to relegate legal aid to the history books, we just draw attention to the political choices are political parties.
It's been a pleasure working with Gail and Will from Justice All and James is to be commended on his well researched papers. Not least his excellent paper 'Out of Scope - Out of Mind' - it got a prominent mention in the House of Lord's debates.
You can read it here..
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/out_of_scope
Read more about the Justice for All campaign
www.justice-for-all.org.uk/
Lord Willy Bach is Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister in the House of Lords
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) is really three Bills in one: legal aid, civil justice and sentencing changes.
On Monday, the Lords started the Bill’s Report stage by considering Part 1 and changed the Bill in three key areas. First, by placing a duty on the Lord Chancellor to secure access to legal services to effectively meet the needs of individuals. Second, by ensuring that ALL domestic violence victims are entitled to access civil legal services and that legal aid is open where they need it in private family law cases. Thirdly, courtesy of Labour Peer Garry Hart and a cross party group of supporters, by guaranteeing that the independence of the new Director of Legal Aid Casework should appear on the face of the Bill.
There were three votes and the Government lost them all – a great result.
Yesterday, a number of fellow Peers and I met with clients who had had their lives changed because of legal aid, as well as their advisers from CABs and Law Centres. If legal aid had not been available these clients’ serious problems would have been made worse. I only wish that Ministers had been present. Perhaps then they would have a different view about the difference legal advice can make. We left the meeting even more determined to do right by these people.
This afternoon in the Lords we start debating the scope of legal aid. The LASPO Bill destroys social welfare law by removing welfare benefits, debt, housing, employment and education law from remaining in scope.
3-0 was a good score on Monday but there can be no resting on our laurels. Today the central issue of maintaining legal aid in social welfare law will be the subject of a series of debates and votes. Some powerful names – across parties – have signed a crucial amendment (number 11) that would keep welfare benefit advice in scope. Further debates will cover debt, housing, employment and education advice. We cannot be sure of victory, particularly as a senior LibDem Peer is trying to protect the Government from losing by proposing a weak discretionary fund in place of legal aid. This is very disappointing as many brave words were said at Committee in favour of keeping these areas in scope. There are, however, many Peers who believe that it is wrong to deprive poor (often disabled) people– from getting legal advice as will clearly happen if this Bill is passed in its present form.
It is clear that the Lords are generally not big fans of the LASPO Bill – and they are right not to be. If carried into law, Part 1 would diminish our much admired legal system, prevent access to justice for the most vulnerable, and will almost certainly cost the public more than the savings planned. We are working as hard as we can to maximise support for the vital votes.
"The Bolton CAB is a large CAB which covers all these fields and has a legal aid contract. It runs an advice surgery from time to time. Yesterday it tried an experiment. Every client who came in had their tale told in general terms by way of a tweet, in other words on Twitter, so that one could read each one of these cases during the course of the morning and afternoon while this surgery lasted. One could see from reading these how the world of a busy CAB or law centre or advice centre actually worked in practice. There were 126 clients who sought legal advice on social welfare issues and they covered practically everything that you could think of. I have no doubt that some of those clients were well able to make a telephone call and start proceedings in that particular way, and I am an undisguised fan of telephone advice when it is appropriate. But are the Government really saying, as I suspect they are, that all 126 of those clients would have been able to do this? Are they saying it is not highly advantageous to have face-to-face contact in some cases? And are they really saying that someone who turned up to a CAB should be turned away and told to call a hotline, as will happen unless this amendment is passed? Can you think of a more bureaucratic, fussy and less efficient system and one that is less reflective of the way people actually live their daily lives? I would argue that it is an absurd proposition which is un-British in the sense that it is one-size-fits-all and too dirigiste and inflexible an approach."
www.parliamentlive.tv/main/Player.aspx?meetingId=10349