Legal Aid Agency Taken To Court For Refusing To Help Rough Sleepers

A human rights organisation is taking the national provider of legal aid to court because it is refusing to help rough sleepers challenge councils over the use of potentially unlawful powers to move them on. Liberty has launched the legal challenge against the Legal Aid Agency because they will not offer assistance to rough sleepers and other local residents who cannot afford to pay lawyers if they want to challenge local authorities’ use of public space protection orders (PSPOs). A PSPO allows councils to ban activities they deem to have a detrimental effect on the lives of others. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/23/legal-aid-agency-taken-to-court-for-refusing-to-help-rough-sleepers

High Court Overturns Housing Legal Aid Changes

The High Court has overturned controversial planned changes to legal aid for housing support. In a judgement published on Friday, the judge, Mrs Justice Andrews, found in favour of the challenge to the Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) decision to make changes to the way housing advice is procured. These controversial changes would have consolidated and reduced housing legal aid schemes, and introduced price competition. The MOJ will now reconsider the remitted proposal. The proposed changes relate to the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS), local schemes which provide immediate legal advice to people at risk of losing their home. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ze8zQ6a0wrAJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/high-court-overturns-housing-legal-aid-changes-56933+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Thousands Left Homeless By Shortage Of Legal Aid Lawyers

Thousands of people are being made homeless every year because they cannot find lawyers to help them resist eviction, charities are warning. Even though legal aid is available to help anyone in danger of losing their home, there has been an 18% decline in the number of challenges brought, at a time of record repossessions in the private rental market. The latest figures, highlighted by the Legal Action Group (LAG) and the homeless charity Shelter, reinforce warnings by the Law Society that “advice deserts”, where few, if any, lawyers are left in practice who are capable of dealing with legal aid housing cases, are emerging across England and Wales. Read more on the Observer website.

Half of Legal Aid Housing Advice Unused Despite Rising Evictions

Just half of face-to-face housing advice available on legal aid was used last year despite soaring repossessions. Data show that the government paid for face-to-face legal help in 34,817 cases. This was just 55% of what the government had provided for.  In some areas as little as 11% of the available help was used. This is despite a five year-high in landlord repossessions. The government has responded by cutting legal aid advice for the current year by almost a fifth, citing “a decrease in client demand”.  But the investigation suggests that there are several reasons why people are not taking up the advice available: they are confused over what advice is still funded, there is a smaller pool of organisations providing such advice and an increasing number of areas with few or no legal aid lawyers.  Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

Hope for Homeless Families In Need Of Legal Aid

In response to a challenge brought by legal charity the Public Law Partnership, the High Court has ruled that Government changes, which would have left homeless families without help, have been ruled ‘unauthorised, discriminatory and impossible to justify’. Regulations introducing a residence test for civil Legal Aid were aimed at preventing those who could not prove that they had been lawfully resident in the UK from receiving Legal Aid.  The test would withhold Legal Aid from recent, lawful migrants and irregular migrants.  It would also catch British nationals, including children, born and living abroad, along with people unable to prove past residence, including women fleeing domestic violence, victims of trafficking and families with pre-school age children. Read more on the Shelter website.

Shelter Forced To Close Advice Offices

Homelessness charity Shelter is being forced to press ahead with closing 10 of its housing advice offices in England because of legal aid cuts.  The organisation expects this could mean up to 100 redundancies but said it was ‘doing everything we can to keep the numbers as low as possible’. Government cuts to legal aid will mean a 50 per cent reduction in funding for the charity’s face-to-face advice services. The Shelter offices are in Rotherham, Ashford, Chatham, Dover, Milton Keynes, Cheshire, Gloucester, Somerset, Hertfordshire and Cumbria. Read more on Inside Housing.

Legal Aid Cuts Risk Homelessness

MPs have been warned that proposed legal aid cuts will result in vulnerable people losing their homes. Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, and Simon Pugh, head of legal services at the charity, told MPs on the justice committee plans to reduce legal aid would damage services. The committee, which is responsible for scrutinising the work of the Ministry of Justice, is investigating the impact of plans announced by justice secretary Ken Clarke to reduce the £2 billion legal aid bill. In its document, Proposals for the reform of legal aid in England and Wales, the government says alternative solutions should be sought when housing and welfare benefit advice is needed, rather than resorting to legal action. Mr Pugh told the committee: ‘It’s very difficult to help people without legal aid.’ Read more on Inside Housing.