The Rt Hon Ken Clarke QC, MP
Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice
Ministry of Justice
102, Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

11 January 2011

Changes to Legal Aid

Dear Ken,

I am writing to you on behalf of Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) and Brighton & Hove Citizens Advice Bureau, to relay their concerns, which I share, about the impact on their work of planned changes to Legal Aid. I believe that the impact on the provision of local advice services will be very damaging - hitting those most in need the hardest.

The Brighton & Hove Advice Strategy Project is a lottery funded project that supports the provision of free independent and confidential advice on ‘social welfare' and related issues to residents in the City. The project is hosted by Brighton Housing Trust and the Citizens Advice Bureau.

I think that the Government's radical proposed changes to the Legal Aid system will significantly limit the assistance that is currently available to Brighton and Hove residents from local charities and solicitors in the areas of core ‘Social Welfare Law' (specifically Housing, Debt, Welfare Benefits), Immigration law and Family law.

According to your proposals, in the future people will only be able to get help if their situation is ‘severe' enough (facing immediate eviction, detained due to their immigration status), as funding for ‘lower level' and preventative work will cease. In addition, people will no longer be able to approach local providers such as BHT and the Citizens Advice Bureau or local high street solicitors for help. Instead they will be required to contact a national helpline service which will assess their problem. In the ‘vast majority' of cases, it is proposed that problems will be dealt with over the phone.

Brighton Housing Trust and the Citizens Advice Bureau have the following concerns:
1. Simply cutting the early preventative services that assist the most vulnerable will prove to be a false economy. I share the view that people ask for help with their complex money and housing problems because they need help. The problems they seek help with will not go away (if anything demand will increase as the welfare reforms are rolled out). BHT and the CAB are concerned that if people do not get the help they need at an early stage their problems will worsen, become more difficult to solve and that demand on other public services such as health and social care will increase. It appears that the Government is proposing to withdraw funding for this work with no clear strategy for alternatively resourcing and supporting the advice sector. Other key funders of advice services, such as the Local Authority cannot be expected to pick up the slack as they will also be having to implement significant cuts during this time and may well prioritise funding for their statutory services.
2. Driving the ‘vast majority' of remaining cases through a national telephone helpline risks ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. The Government state that they are committed to retaining local face to face provision for those who most need it. However, the cuts are so significant it is difficult to see how any local provider could achieve sufficient economies of scale to make local delivery feasible.

I would like to give you an idea of the likely impact in Brighton and Hove of these changes, as assessed by BHT and the CAB. BHT and the CAB currently hold a joint contract to deliver specialist advice in the ‘core' Social Welfare Areas of Housing, Debt and Benefits. In 2009 -10 they were able to use this to assist 2795 vulnerable residents in Brighton and Hove with their complex problems. Both these organisations and myself are concerned that the vast majority of these people would not have received help under the scheme the government is proposing. The contract to deliver Social Welfare
law is worth over £500,000 per annum in total. The proposals to limit provision and deliver the majority of what remains puts all, or virtually all, of this funding for the two charities at risk.

Case Study - ‘Terry' (all client names in this letter have been changed).
Terry is a 45 year old man with learning difficulties. His mother had been taken into a care home and he was living independently for the first time in his life. He sought assistance from the Citizens Advice Bureau after running into financial difficulty. At this point his benefits had stopped and he'd been told he needed to pay back some of the benefits he had received in the past. He was also being chased by creditors for a number of loans he had taken out to try and deal with the situation. He was extremely anxious and fearful of the future. Thankfully the Bureau's Legal Aid workers were able to help him appeal the decisions about his benefits (it transpired that he had, in fact, been under claiming for some time) and negotiate affordable repayment plans with the loan companies. Under the proposed scheme for legal aid Terry would not have qualified for help until things got so bad that he faced eviction from his home. By that point it is likely that he would have been deeper in debt and his problems would have been more difficult to resolve. It is also quite possible that his confidence in living independently could have been damaged leading to additional demand on social care and health services.

Whilst both BHT and the Brighton and Hove CAB are well equipped to deal with emergency cases, much of the emphasis at present is on ensuring problems are resolved before they get out of hand. For example, in 2009-10 BHT resolved 93% of their housing cases without needing to refer the client to the council to make a homelessness application.

Your department's proposals have made clear that you believe early preventative work should stop and only people facing immediate crisis situations - specifically eviction or imminent homelessness - should be helped. The proposals state ‘We recognise that there are other issues - for example welfare benefits cases or general debt problems - which in time could lead to a home being at risk if they are not dealt with expeditiously....we consider it would be inappropriate to devote limited funds to a range of less important cases on [this] basis...' .

I agree with BHT and the CAB that this is a false economy that will generate additional costs, both human and financial, as problems worsen and people place additional demands on public services.

Case study - 'Sabir'
Sabir was a 39 year old man with mental health problems. After losing his job and going through a difficult relationship breakdown Sabir ran into financial difficulty. His claim for benefits was turned down, he fell into arrears with his rent, received verbal threats about eviction proceedings from his landlord and ran unmanageable debts on his credit card. He came to BHT for assistance. Thankfully BHT's caseworkers were able to successfully appeal his benefit decision, negotiate with his landlord (avoiding unnecessary and costly
eviction proceedings), and agree a repayment plan for his credit cards. Sabir feels this has helped him get his life ‘back on track' and he is now looking for work. Under the proposed scheme for legal aid, I understand that Sabir would not have qualified for help until he actually faced eviction. At this point he would have been far deeper in debt it may well have been too late to negotiate with his landlord and save his tenancy.

BHT Immigration Advice Legal Centre in Queens Road Brighton is the main provider of Immigration Legal Advice in Sussex. The contract they hold is worth around £450,000 per annum (excluding interpreters fees etc).

Case study - ‘Alisa'
Alisa is a young Russian woman who came into this country following her marriage to a British citizen. Upon arrival her husband embarked upon a campaign of mental and physical abuse which included forcing their young child to refer to her in the most derogatory terms. He also raped her. However, due to her naivety and young age, she was unaware of her ability to report this to the authorities. She continued to live like this until eventually, after suffering further physical and sexual assault, a neighbour befriended her and helped her and her child to escape to a refuge. She was referred to BHT for Immigration Advice. At this point she had been in the UK for over two years - the point at which most spouses of British Citizens are able to secure permanent residency. However, when BHT assisted her to apply for further leave the Home Office dismissed all the supporting evidence from the police, her GP the women's refuge and her college, turning her application down. Thankfully BHT successfully appealed against this. Under the proposed changes to Legal Aid, Alisa would not have qualified for help. She had been highly traumatised by her experiences and it is likely that, without BHT's, help she would not have coped with the application and appeal processes on her own. Ultimately it is quite possible that this would have led to her removal from this country and separation from her child.

In 2010 the BHT Immigration Legal Advice centre assisted 877 new households. Nearly half of these (47%) were from Brighton and Hove. The government proposes to limit assistance in immigration cases to those where clients are claiming asylum or facing detention. I share the concern that more than half of the people currently assisted by BHT and the CAB would not get help under the new system.

Your proposals state that ‘we do not consider that individuals in [non asylum] immigration cases are likely, in general, to be particularly vulnerable....individuals will generally be able to represent themselves...in tribunals that are designed to be simple to navigate'. I believe that the proposals will in fact deny justice to vulnerable people.

BHT and the CAB also have particular concerns about the proposal that clients with asylum issues should be required to access Legal Aid services via the phone. Many of these clients have experienced highly traumatic events including rape, torture and the death of family members. It is the experience of BHT Immigration Service that face to face interaction is, almost without exception, the most effective way of building the trust necessary to take effective witness statements in these situations.

I am also concerned about the impact on the family law legal aid services that are currently delivered by a number of local solicitors firms in Brighton and Hove. Delivering Legal Aid in this area of law is not a highly profitable activity by any means, and many of the providers are long established small businesses that are committed to providing high quality services to their community. In the period September 08 - August 09 these local solicitors provided legal advice to just under 1,200 local residents to help them deal with complex legal problems related to relationship breakdown and child contact or residence. Legal representation was provided to nearly 1,400 people.

Overall your department believes that their proposals will reduce Family law ‘Legal Help' advice cases by 83% and ‘Legal Representation' cases by 48%. You have proposed to retain funding for ‘private' Family law cases (as opposed to those involving Social Services and Children for example) only where there is sufficient evidence of ongoing domestic violence and/or forced marriage. Everyone else is to be encouraged to resolve their situation through mediation. I share the deep concerns of BHT and the CAB that this will simply not be an adequate solution for many vulnerable people, particularly as there are often significant power imbalances between ex - partners in these cases. Perhaps unsurprisingly, even the Government concedes that the groups most adversely affected by these changes will be women and people from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

Case study - ‘Shirley'
Shirley and David had been married for a number of years when their relationship broke down. David was not violent towards Shirley but was aggressive, controlling and uncompromising in his manner. He insisted that the family home should be sold and he paid privately for a Family Law solicitor to argue this on his behalf. Shirley was extremely worried for her and her children's future. She didn't understand her rights and she did not have the money to pay privately for a solicitor. Thankfully, Fitzhugh Gates Solicitors were able to help her under the Legal Aid scheme. As a result of their help she has been able to remain in her home and she receives ongoing maintenance payments. This case was not suitable for mediation and without the help of the solicitor there would have been a huge power imbalance. Under the proposed changes Shirley would not be helped.

Thank you for taking the time to look and this letter and for your close consideration of the issues and cases it raises. I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP, Brighton Pavilion

Read the Ministry of Justice's reply