There has been the tiniest bit of good news about legal aid cuts, but the uncertainty continues

Whenever I have a chance, on radio or television, or in articles in local papers, I refer to The creation of a ‘perfect storm’ that will lead to a massive rise in homelessness next year. Amongst the factors that will have a negative impact in areas such as Brighton & Hove, Eastbourne, Hastings, Worthing and Littlehampton, to mention just a few areas on the coastal south east, are:
Cuts to housing benefit
Reduction in access to advice and representation as a result of cuts to the legal aid budget
Spiralling costs of private sector rents
Greater competition for whatever social housing is available
Displacement from London of homeless people as the streets are ‘cleaned up’ in preparation for the Olympic Games.

This week there has been a little, just a little, bit of good news. It has been announced that the changes in legal aid funding have been put off for six months, from an original implementation date of October 2012 to April 2013. The 10% cut in the value of funding from October 1st 2011 remains, and we continue to feel the impact of that.

At BHT we subsidise our advice services by over £100,000 each year, funding which gets harder and harder to raise.

The downsize of this delay is that uncertainty about the future continues for BHT as an organisation and for our dedicated and highly skilled staff team.

I am frequently asked what the legal aid measures are. This week’s edition of Inside Housing has a very helpful ‘low down’ which I repeat here:

“The government plans to cut the £2.1 billion annual legal aid budget by £350 million annually

“Fees solicitors can claim for legal aid in civil cases were cut by 10% in October
Advice will only be available in cases in which households could be, or have been, made homeless or where serious disrepair is threatening health

“Legal aid for debt advice will only be available when a tenant’s home is at ‘immediate threat’

” Struggling tenants may also be hit by cuts to legal aid and in other cases, such as … appeals against welfare benefit cuts …”

I recently had the privilege of listening to a 61 year old client of our Brighton Advice Centre talk about the misery she had experienced because of the actions of seven different debt collection agencies. Our debt advisor’s knowledge of the law (gained after many years of practice including a period working for a debt collection agency itself!) was able to demonstrate that the original debt of £1,000 – now inflated to over £6,000 because of ‘fees, charges and penalties’ – was not, in fact, owed.

Our client is now able to sleep at night, answer her phone and door, and is beginning to enjoy life again after several years of suffering. How can you put a price on that?