Voluntary legal advice providers will bear the brunt of funding cuts, says Jon Robins
The delicate provision of legal aid seems to be fraying at the edges and the first part of the overstretched fabric that has begun to go is unsurprisingly the not-for-profit (NfP) part of the profession. A series of legal advice agencies have recently gone out of business: the largest NfP provider in west London, Law for All, and the Immigration Advisory Service (which employed 250 caseworkers) have both gone bust. According to the Law Centre Federation (LCF), if the government sticks to its programme of legal aid cuts, 18 out of 53 law centres will close.
It is the NfP advice sector as opposed to private practice law firms that will bear the brunt of the legal aid cuts that threaten to slash £350m from the £2.2bn total. Agencies have no private clients to soften the impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill that proposes to remove entire areas of law from scope including almost all “social welfare law” (welfare benefits, employment, debt, most housing and immigration)
