The invaluable work of advice services, services which are now under threat

In today’s Argus there was a report on the prosecution by Hastings Borough Council of a landlord for ignoring a property improvement notice. The landlord, who is well known to BHT’s Hastings Advice Centre in Hastings, failed to deal with damp, fire safety and domestic hygiene hazards. He was fined £4,250 and ordered to pay full costs.

The Argus quotes Cllr Kim Forward, Hastings’ lead member for housing: “We are sending a clear message to the landlords in our town who do not comply with the regulations which ensure their tenants are adequately protected. We will not tolerate poor housing, and if you won’t work with us to improve your property if it is substandard, you can expect us to use the full force of the law against you.”

What did not come across in the article was the persistent and sterling efforts of BHT staff who pursued this case for over 12months. With reforms to legal aid and the squeeze on funding from local councils, our ability to take on cases like this will be severely limited.

BHT advice staff are often not recognised for their work. They deal with issues like this on a daily basis and, as a result, can receive abuse and threats from certain landlords (although most landlords are dedicated to providing a good service and are responsive to the welfare of their tenants). At the same time advice staff cope with clients who can be challenging. They then have the backdrop of the uncertainty over their future because of funding cuts.

A civil society should be judged by how it treats the weakest and most marginalised of its community. BHT Hastings Advice, with Hastings Borough Council, have shown how a civil society should respond to poor housing. It is a shame that such services are under threat.

Tackling Fuel Poverty in Brighton and Hove

BHT Advice Centre has recently secured funding to deliver advice to promote the reduction of fuel poverty in Brighton and Hove.  Fuel poverty is defined as any household which spends more than 10% of its income on fuel to keep the home in a ‘satisfactory’ condition.  In order to maximise income and reduce outgoings, our adviser, Rachel Butt, will be providing:

- help and advice on energy tariffs (including trust fund applications)

- benefits checks and applications

- low level debt advice and negotiation to reduce outgoings

Who we can help …

The eligibility criteria is quite simple: people will be eligible if they are in fuel-poverty (have problems in paying their energy bills and need our advice and assistance) AND live in Brighton and Hove.

The referral process could not be simpler: either phone Rachel on 01273 234752 or email her rachel.butt@bht.org.uk who will send you a referral form.

When we can help … 

Rachel will do home visits between now and the end of March 2013, with a view to making at least five visits a week.

 

Seeking advice at the earliest possible time can save a huge amount of time, added complications and worry

We can’t pick up the newspapers these days without hearing about the struggle ordinary people have in making ends meet. Inflation is up again, fuel bills are causing huge anxiety, and many households going ow having to cope with the additional cost of Christmas.

Where households are getting into financial difficulties it is important that they get advice at the earliest possible time.

I’ve recently been told that our Eastbourne Advice Centre is seeing an increase in the number of people who are delaying seeking advice until their situation is at a critical point.

My colleague, Sue Hennell,  BHT’s Advice Services Manager  in East Sussex  told me  that it is very common for people to feel unable to face up to the growing difficulties if at all possible.  She said that it is never too late to get advice but that her advice is not to delay if at all possible.  Early advice can save a huge amount of time, added complications and worry.

Sue told me: “In over 80% of housing cases, we either prevent homelessness or achieve other positive outcomes such as sorting out disrepair and helping with finding accommodation.”

Here is an example of a client, John (not his real name) who we have helped. John was a client of our Eastbourne Advice Centre and knows first-hand how important it is to get advice as soon as possible. He said: “I came to the advice centre because I was unemployed and six months behind on my mortgage payments. I had left it and left it and eventually it got so bad that the mortgage company applied to the County Court for a Warrant of Possession.

“I thought that I would lose my home and couldn’t see a way out of it.

“I went to see an adviser at BHT Sussex and they realised I had not been receiving a state pension or pension credits. They were able to adjourn the hearing for 6 weeks and make an application for the state pension and pension credits.

“I received a backdated payment which allowed me to pay off my mortgage arrears and I was then able to pay my mortgage each month with the on-going payments.

“I had spent the last six months worrying about losing my home and wondering what I was going to do. Early advice would have prevented all of this worry and stress. I should have sought advice as soon as the problem started.”

BHT Sussex Eastbourne Advice has recently moved to share an office with Citizens Advice Bureau, Eastbourne. The co-location of the two advice agencies has resulted in a ‘one stop shop’ for advice in Eastbourne.

Click here for contact details of our advice centres in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings.

The case for advice, and the case for investment in advice services

One of the unfortunate aspects of politics over the last 20 years has been ‘Government by Anecdote’ where a handful of extreme cases are used to justify fundamental changes to the welfare state. For example, we have heard a great deal in recent months regarding people on housing benefit claim over £100,000 per annum. In reality, this has happened on just three occasions. I would agree that this is three cases too many. Unfortunately, such anecdotes are used to justify the wholesale changes to housing benefit provision currently being introduced.

Similar stories have been told regarding ‘fat cat’ lawyers getting rich on legal aid. The reality is that most legal aid practitioners work for far less than they could earn if they were in private practice. So why do they do it?

People sometimes have complex problems and sometimes they need technical and practical assistance to give them breathing space to get on with their lives. Such technical and practical assistance often comes from legal aid practitioners. They do it because it is the right thing to do, not because of the money.

If this specialist advice was to be lost, more individuals would flounder, with consequences for their health, their mental well-being, their homes, and their families. For society, the financial costs can be enormous. The cost of legal aid is small by comparison.

I believe Parliament has been short-sighted in deciding to restrict the availability of legal aid. But we are where we are. Legal aid is being restricted, saving the Treasury just £450 million a year. This saving may well be exceeded by the fall out of not ensuring that people are properly advised and represented.

One consequence of changes to legal aid provision is to put in jeopardy independent advice centres up and down the country. Shelter, for example, has recently announced that it will be closing eight of its legal aid centres.

BHT’s own legal aid centres in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings have an uncertain future. Our legal aid funding is likely to be reduced by about 40%, thereby undermining the financial viability of these services. Already they run at a loss of over £200,000 each year.

One of the tough decisions for local councils is to decide whether to fund such services. Everyone knows that local government is having to make huge savings from their own budgets. To expect them not merely to maintain their investment in advice services but to increase it might appear, on the surface, to be unreasonable.

Yet there is a strong case for increased investment. Take BHT’s Brighton Advice Centre. It advises and represents 4,500 residents of Brighton and Hove each year and prevents 2,500 households from becoming homeless.

BHT does its part.  We bring into the City over a £1 million from the Legal Services Commission, Big Lottery funding and funding for work in the private rented sector.

So what does Brighton and Hove get from this investment? First and foremost it ensures that its residents have a first rate legal aid centre so that those who might otherwise flounder, who need breathing space, can have their complex problems dealt with through specialist advice and representation.

Using the concept of the ‘Local Multiplier’, the £1.5 million cost of our Brighton legal services is worth over £4 million to the local economy. The Local Multiplier has it that investment in jobs within the local economy sees that investment recycled within that economy to the factor of up to 3 times.

All of this leads me to say how delighted I am that the draft budget for the City Council is seeking to invest in advice services provided by BHT and others.  This is a matter above party politics and I hope that there will be all-party support for this part of the council’s budget.

The Mayor of Brighton and Hove visits BHT’s Advice Centre

The Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Councillor Bill Randall, today visited BHT’s Advice Centre in Queens Road, Brighton.

The Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Cllr Bill Randall, visits BHT’s Brighton Advice Centre

Cllr Randall met staff who provide housing, welfare benefit, debt and immigration advice and representation.  Last year the Advice Centre worked with 3,912 men and women.

In 2011/12, because of the work of the Advice Centre, homelessness was prevented or accommodation found in 1,531 cases.

After the visit, Bill acknowledged that the Advice Centre makes a huge contribution to meeting many of the City Council’s strategic priorities including the prevention of homelessness and rough sleeping, reducing inequality through helping clients out of poverty, and achieving community cohesion through immigration advice helping families achieve stability and live together.

I a statement, he said: “Most distressing is to hear about the trafficked children brought here for domestic service or prostitution. Some are as young as 13. Often these children are referred to as ‘young people’. In reality they are children and need our protection.”

The Advice Centre prevented homelessness in 70% of cases. This represents a huge financial saving for the local authority but more importantly there are fewer people sleeping on the streets and fewer people in temporary accommodation.

The work of BHT’s Advice Centre: preventing homelessness, reducing inequality, community cohesion

This morning I reviewed the impact made by BHT’s Advice Centre in Brighton. Here are some basic statistics. I would ask you to reflect on the difference we make to the City and the consequences should this service close:

• 35% clients belong to a BME group
• 42% clients have either a disability, addiction or suffers from mental or physical ill health
• 55% of housing clients are in “priority need” and so the possible responsibility of the City Council.

Positive Outcomes (expressed as a percent) of Cases Closed during 2011/12

• Housing Advice 88% (This includes homeless prevention, conditions improved, accommodation found, better able to manage affairs)
• Housing court duty 85% (This includes homelessness prevented through stopping a possession order or execution of bailiff’s warrant)
• Accommodation Advice and Assistance 60% (This includes Homelessness prevention, PRS Accommodation found or sustained. These statistics are based on tracking 317 clients over 12 months).
• Welfare Benefits 95% (This includes clients who received increased or backdated benefit, and who are now better abled to manage their affairs)
• Debt 87% (This includes debts negotiated to an affordable plan, client better able to manage debt, debt reduced/written off etc.)
• Immigration 78% (This includes being granted Leave to Remain, refugee status, citizenship, family reunion etc. and includes 63% of appeals won)

Our legal services directly contributes to City strategies on:

• Prevention of homelessness and rough sleeping by reducing the numbers in temporary accommodation.  In 2011/12 homelessness was prevented or accommodation found in 1,531 of cases above. A 70% homelessness prevention rate.
• Reducing Inequality through helping to lift clients out of poverty (often suffering multiple problems, for example mental health, addictions, offenders, street homelessness, anti-social behaviour, poverty)
• Community cohesion through immigration advice helping families achieve stability and live together

Bringing services and organisations together must be the way forward

Today we had an event to mark the co-location of BHT’s Eastbourne Advice Centre with Eastbourne CAB. The purpose of this is to improve the service for clients as well as to save money. BHT Advice in Eastbourne has moved from its old offices into Highlight House, the existing home of the CAB.

This move follows closely on the heels of the setting up of the Advice and Community Hub in Hastings where three advice agencies, CAB 1066, the Hastings Advice and Representation Centre (HARC) and BHT Hastings Advice, now provide their services under one roof.

This approach, a testimony to the farsightedness of all agencies concerned, must be the way things will be done in the future. The CAB is the best known brand and will inevitably attract the greatest footfall. It should not matter to the other agencies if one agency has a higher profile than the others. What is important is that those needing general or specialist advice know where to go. And most people know the CAB.

The future for advice services looks grim. We need to do whatever it takes to make sure that those in need of advice and representation have the best possible chance of receiving it. I am very proud of that BHT Sussex is working with other agencies in this way. I hope to see more of it in the future.

Eastbourne CAB and BHT’s Eastbourne Advice Centre can be contacted at Highlight House, 8 St Leonard’s Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3UH

Refugee Week: Family Reunion

This week has been Refugee Week.  Each day I have posted a simple account of the work undertaken by BHT’s Immigration Legal Service.  Some have involved clients who have been tortured and persecuted.  Today’s story is a less dramatic account of a family being reunited.  It is not an account that might make the media, but it shows the range of the work this service undertakes, and the importance of a successful outcome for our clients.  I am grateful to all staff in the Immigration Legal Service for their dedicated work, week in, week out, and for providing me with the real life stories that I have posted this week.

A Family Reunion

P and her family are recognised refugees in the UK. P instructed Brighton Housing Trust to assist  her in making an application for her mother who had a serious eye condition to join the family in the UK. The application was refused by the entry clearance officer.

BHT represented her on appeal. There was limited medical evidence from her country of origin, however, BHT was able to obtain a statement from a UK-based eye specialist and succeeded in demonstrating the extent of the macular degeneration and consequences of the illness, which tipped the balance in the client’s favour.

P’s mother is now safely in the UK and being cared for by her family.

Refugee Week: The account of a young Iranian, beaten and imprisoned for demonstrating against the regime

N is an Iranian national and arrived in the UK when he was 16 years old. His family in Iran had a history of opposition to the Iranian regime. His father and uncle were executed when he was a child and his elder brother had also been detained. Prior to leaving Iran, Mr N attended a number of demonstrations against the regime. He was beaten severely by the authorities during the demonstrations and was eventually arrested by Iranian State Security. He was beaten and kept in solitary confinement for 3 months with little food and water and no access to daylight. He was forced to  sign a confession and was then transferred to prison where he spent 20 days before being released. Eventually he fled the country with the help of an uncle.

He claimed asylum in the UK but his case was refused by the Home Office. They did not accept that he was telling the truth about what had happened to him.

Brighton Housing Trust lodged an appeal to the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal and obtained evidence including a report documenting the torture he had suffered in support of his appeal. The judge accepted the evidence and found that Mr N would be at risk of detention and further ill treatment amounting to persecution if he was sent back to Iran.

Mr N’s appeal was allowed and he was found to be a refugee meaning that he will be permitted to remain in the UK and is no longer at risk of suffering further torture and ill treatment.

Refugee Week:The story of a 16 year old Syrian Kurd

S is a 16 year old Syrian Kurd. He had attended anti-government demonstrations in Syria and subsequently his family were targeted by the authorities leading to the disappearance of his mother, father and brother. He was able to flee to a relative’s house who immediately arranged his escape from Syria. Having made his way to the UK he claimed asylum.

The Home Office refused to accept that Syrian Kurds had played any significant part in the continuing turmoil in Syria and rejected his claim for asylum.

Detailed evidence was uncovered confirming the role that Kurds have played in the uprising in Syria and Brighton Housing Trust represented S at his appeal hearing. S was successful and the decision of the Home Office overturned resulting in a grant of Refugee Status to him and therefore the protection he requires in order to avoid him suffering the same fate as his family members.