
Smith, a former director of JUSTICE, notes that ‘the regulators have, to their credit, faced up to some of the issues’. But what answers do they have?
Smith relays some of the points raised, including by law centre advisors, at the conference. These include that most legal problems arise in clusters. Smith writes: ‘Unsurprisingly, the most common clusters involved welfare benefits (ie poverty) and, for example, housing.
‘People encountered both systemic (such as how public service are administered) and personal barriers (such as poor knowledge of sources of help).’