At Risk
THIS SERVICE IS AT RISK!
Government proposals to cut Legal Aid will significantly reduce the specialist advice services Gateshead Advice Centre can offer.
You can help us to campaign against these cuts by filling in and submitting the letter at the bottom of this page. It would be especially useful if you could write a short note in the box about how the cuts would affect you personally.
The following changes are proposed:
Welfare benefits advice
All legal aid funding will be cut, including issues like appealing decisions for sickness benefits.
Welfare benefits are complicated, and the people who need them are often very vulnerable, making it harder to understand or represent themselves at appeals.
Debt advice
Legal aid will only fund debt advice when a person’s home is at ‘immediate risk’.
Debt advisers know that early advice is cheaper and more effective. This proposal would mean people cannot get help until they are at crisis point.
Employment law advice
All legal aid funding will be cut, except in cases of discrimination.
Employers can pay for lawyers to represent them at employment tribunals but ex-employees would have no free legal advice or representation – leaving them at an unfair disadvantage.
Family law advice
Legal aid will only fund advice on family problems in cases of domestic violence. In all other cases, legal aid will not fund advice on issues like divorce, contact with children, adoption or family maintenance.
The Government proposes families settle their problems through mediation instead, but there are no plans to guarantee access to mediation. Mediation is not suitable in all cases, where families cannot agree a compromise.
If one side of a dispute could afford a lawyer, this proposal would leave the other one at an unfair disadvantage.
Housing law advice
Legal aid will only fund advice on homelessness or serious disrepair threatening health.
Advice on all other housing issues will no longer be funded through legal aid, including issues like protection for tenants against harassment by their landlord.
Other advice
Many other specific issues will no longer be funded through legal aid. This includes advice and representation at many types of tribunal against companies or government agencies.
In these cases, companies and government agencies can pay for lawyers, but individuals struggling to get fair treatment could be on their own – sometimes facing large legal teams.
