Homelessness Services in London Cut - Homeless Link Press Release

Risks to key services for homeless people at a time when rough sleeping in the capital is rising

London Councils’ Grant Committee has announced that it will fund only 5 out of 33 services for single homeless people from April 2011. Instead it will repatriate funds to the boroughs where services face an uncertain and highly vulnerable future.

On October 19th the Executive Group of London Councils Grants Committee decided they would continue to fund priority services that could only be delivered on a pan London or multi borough basis. They specifically identified single homelessness services as services that these criteria. The full Grants Committee yesterday decided not to continue funding 28 services at a cost of £3.2 million. These services will be at the mercy of decisions of boroughs which are, in many cases, already proposing cuts of 25-40% to the homelessness services they already fund.

One example is the London Street Rescue service, operated by Thames Reach across the whole of London. This reaches rough sleepers and operates a single number helpline for the public to ring if they see someone sleeping rough who needs help. This service will lose the 25% of its funding it currently receives from London Councils. Despite its work in 32 London boroughs it has been designated as "essentially local" in nature by London Councils.

Another example is New Horizons Youth Centre which is to lose 75% of its public funding at a stroke. It works with young people who have fallen through every other element of the welfare state and helps move them away from homelessness. It was only last year that a £1.6 million Lottery capital grant helped them to create a state-of-the-art facility with kitchen, launderette, counselling rooms, recreation, computer and literacy provision, and a lot more that enables them to get young people housed, employed, educated and rehabilitated. Now the work that takes place there is in jeopardy.

The London Councils’ Leaders Committee meets on 14 December and this is the last chance to ask them for a rethink.

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national network representing London’s frontline homelessness charities, said,

“The loss of strategic funding for London’s homelessness services used by a highly mobile population just makes no sense. These are priority services at a time when the flow onto the streets from the recession has increased by 20% over the last 3 months. Due to heroic efforts this has not led to an increase in the numbers sleeping out on any night, but its touch and go whether we can stay ahead. This is the worst time to threaten the future of services that are helping London’s most vulnerable people keep away from a life without shelter at great risk to their health and even life.

We have joined with the Mayor of London to lobby London Councils for the re-categorisation of services which clearly support individuals from across the capital, not just individual boroughs.

We call for an urgent rethink by the Leaders’ Committee”

Cuts in Council Spending

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says: The chancellor has just announced cuts in council spending by over a quarter over four years. He also announced that he was removing ring-fenced grants. It reminds me of the old Whitehall saying "Governments with money centralise and claim the credit; those without decentralise and spread the blame"

Ministry of Justice cuts

The Ministry of Justice cuts announced mean that its budget will fall from around £9.5 billion to £7 billion over four years.

This is a huge cut and will be dependant on ministers achieving changes to sentencing, prisons and legal aid funding.

budget news - social housing rents

Terms for existing social housing tenants and their rent will be unchanged, with new tenants offered intermediate rents at around 80% of the market rent. The chancellor forecasts this will allow the building of up to 150,000 new affordable homes over four years.

Ministry of Justice faces cuts of 14,000 full-time staff

The BBC's Danny Shaw says a leaked memo from the Ministry of Justice, dated 14 October, says the department faces cuts of 14,000 full-time staff - with most of this coming on the front line, where 11,000 posts will go. Most of the cuts in the first two years, it adds.

Life in the UK

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are currently conducting a research project on the effects of the "Life in the UK" test, for a comparative report on citizenship tests commissioned by the European Commission. Our project is being run by Bernard Ryan, Reader in Law at the University of Kent.

For the project, we would like to interview organisations which advise migrants about settlement and/ or naturalisation. In particular, we hope by this means to find out about groups who have particular difficulty with the test.

Should you be able to participate, the interview itself would last from 30 to 45 minutes, and we are flexible as to when it would take place. If possible, we need to have the interviews completed by mid-July. We would also be happy to provide you with the questions in advance

We very much hope that you may be able to assist us.

Yours sincerely,

Anika Haverig (contact: A.Haverig@ent.ac.uk)

Nadine El-Enany (contact. N.El-Enany@lse.ac.uk)

Why Refugee and Migrant Justice must not be allowed to fail

Posted by Daniel Trilling - 03 June 2010 15:10

Vulnerable people need an advocate in the face of an uncaring system.

A demonstration in Glasgow on 19 March after a family of refugees jumped to their deaths.

When a bank is on the verge of collapse, financiers and politicians are apt to rally round, saying it is "too big to fail". The leading UK charity Refugee and Migrant Justice, which is under threat of closure, may not command such attention, but to the thousands of asylum seekers it supports each year, it is an essential lifeline.

This week, leading figures including the Archbishop of Canterbury joined calls to save RMJ, which is the largest charity of its kind in the UK and currently provides legal advice to around 10,000 vulnerable people, including 900 unaccompanied children. It is threatened by changes to the legal aid system that mean money is now paid upon completion of case work.

As a result, the charity faces a huge cash shortfall. Caroline Slocock, RMJ's chief executive, said:

RMJ is not asking for new money, simply prompt payment of legal aid for the work it has carried out. Until recently we were given regular, ongoing payments for the work we do. As a not-for-profit organisation we cannot expect to make sufficient profit to finance millions of pounds of working capital.

In its defence, the Minstry of Justice says that RMJ has had three years notice of the legal aid changes and that it has worked with the charity to help minimise "disruption". But a spokesperson for the charity pointed out that while it needs £1.8m over the next six months to survive, the closure of RMJ would cost the government more than £2m as the government would need to pay other providers to take on cases.

The issue is about more than money, however. No-one knows the value of RMJ's work better than John "Bosco" Nyombi, who fled Uganda in 2001 in fear for his life. Nyombi, 31, is gay and his lifestyle had long made him the target of abuse in his home country, where homosexuality is a crime.

The final straw came when police raided a bar near his home. "My friends were arrested and they were beaten up really severely," he says. "The police mentioned my name, they went to my mum's house and my place of work. That's when I decided to leave."

If Britain honoured fully its commitment to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which defines a refugee as someone with "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion," Nyombi's struggle might have ended there. But instead, he fought a six-year battle with the UK Home Office to have his asylum claim accepted.

In 2008, he was detained for four months ahead of being deported back to Uganda, during which time he was not allowed to contact his solicitor. But lawyers at RMJ working on his behalf were able to appeal against the decision and Nyombi was finally granted leave to stay.

"I wouldn't be here talking now if it wasn't for RMJ," he says, simply.

The uphill struggle that asylum seekers face in this country is a particularly poisonous legacy of the last government. Thanks to Labour's attempts to seem "tough" on immigration, refugees who arrive in the UK are confronted by an inhumane system where adults and children alike are detained for months on end despite having committed no crime. The asylum system is under constant pressure from strict government targets and there have been allegations of institutional racism at the UK's main asylum processing centre in Wales .

The new administration has already made one positive step on asylum in pledging to end child detention. Its wider attitude to immigration remains unclear, with one half of the coalition having pledged limits and the other having favoured an amnesty for illegal immigrants, prior to the election.

Swift action to help RMJ would indicate how far Cameron's government is going to live up to its claim to progressive politics - a failure to do so will reveal just how little substance lies behind the "Big Society" window-dressing.

Tags: Immigration No Place For Children asylum

End this 'inhumane and expensive' asylum system

• 
  
• • Caroline Slocock
  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 June 2010 10.49 BST
  • Article history

The government must ensure asylum seekers receive good-quality legal representation before more families suffer

Children are detained unnecessarily in the current asylum system. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA

My organisation, Refugee and Migrant Justice, is the largest specialist provider of legal representation to asylum seekers and the victims of trafficking. We are facing possible closure because of the last government's mistakes.

The new government has an opportunity to make Britain's asylum system fairer, faster and more humane. Labour policies to clear backlogs, tighten borders, and appear "tough" have resulted in an expensive, inefficient and inhumane system in which children are routinely locked up and many genuine cases turned down, only to be accepted at appeal – a costly process wasting money for the taxpayer.

The new administration's decisions to end the detention of children and review asylum and legal aid are potentially positive. But, despite this good start, decisions being taken on legal aid now may define this as the moment things went horribly wrong.

Good-quality legal representation is the key to speed and fairness and offers good value for money, but the last government's funding rules are squeezing this out.

A recent pilot project (PDF) in Solihull gave every asylum seeker access to a lawyer, who represented them when the Home Office decided their case. The pilot led to more asylum seekers being granted asylum early, and more cases being concluded within six months. Independent evaluation suggested significant overall savings because less money was being wasted downstream.

Access to quality legal representation early on is also crucial to reducing the number of families being detained and faced with forcible removal.

But despite the importance of good quality legal representation, legal aid no longer supports it. Most cases now receive a fixed fee, irrespective of time spent or quality of work. Short legal advice work, which cannot resolve cases, is paid the same as more time-consuming work to prepare witness statements, which are essential to good asylum decisions. Short cases, which are now paid over twice as much as before the changes, are now common, while witness statements are a rarity.

But the real killer is the Legal Services Commission's decision to pay for work only once the Home Office or the tribunals have reached a decision – which can take up to two years. Charities such as RMJ take on longer, more complex cases, so are badly hit. They don't have large reserves and can't get bank loans to pick up the government's debt. Many others are suffering too, and some have already gone under. The Law Centres Federation recently warned that many law centres "struggle with late payment".

Unfortunately, the new government has been advised to stick to the last government's rules on legal aid because they underpin a procurement exercise started but not completed by the previous administration. This exercise would lock in the current payment system for a further three years and ringfence it from the legal aid review. It will also prevent the "early legal advice process" – piloted so successfully in Solihull – from being adopted nationwide.

It's time for this government to break free from the last government's mistakes. If we are forced to close because of these delays in payments, more than 10,000 clients, including 900 unaccompanied children who receive free legal advice and representation from us, will be cut adrift. It's not only RMJ and other providers like us, but the whole asylum system that is being put at risk.

Caroline Slocock is the chief executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice

Advice Guide on Mortgages

Mortgage problems

• How to sort out your mortgage problems
• Managing your mortgage
• Your mortgage lender takes you to court
• Eviction for mortgage arrears

More about mortgage problems…

Get help to manage your money - In England

Following its launch in December 2009, the new Money management section on Adviceguide now has an interactive budgeting tool and a set of customisable letters, along with guidance for using them.

The budgeting tool is an online calculator designed to help you work out how much you've got to pay off your non-priority debts such as credit cards, overdrafts and other unsecured loans (loans which aren’t secured against your property). You can also use it to work out your household budget. At the end, you can print off a financial statement which you can use to help you reach an agreement with the people you owe money to.

You can use the customisable letters to write to the people you owe money to, explain why you're in debt and, for example, offer to pay back what you owe or to say that you can't pay them back at the moment.

Also in the Money management section you can also find lots of help and information including:

• how to deal with your debts
• how to sort out your mortgage problems
• how to borrow money without getting into debt
• how to work out the best options for saving money.

To find out more, go to the Money management section.

Almost 80 per cent of asylum seekers wrongly refused legal representation at appeal

A ground-breaking project at Devon Law Centre has found that asylum seekers are being wrongly refused publicly-funded legal representation for their asylum appeals in 79 per cent of cases, and that at least 30 per cent of these people have a legitimate claim to some form of protection.

Thursday 1 April 2010: The project’s final report warns that recent reforms to legal aid have made it harder for asylum seekers to get a fair hearing. The report includes several compelling case studies in which people were only recognised as refugees after the project had secured representation for them at appeal.

In one case, a Chinese woman who had been detained and tortured for her trade union activities was refused asylum at her first appeal where she was unrepresented, but was granted a second appeal, which she won, after the project obtained legal representation for her.

Since June 2007, the project has been referred 75 asylum seekers refused Controlled Legal Representation on the grounds that their cases had insufficient merit. Devon Law Centre appealed against those refusals to an Independent Funding Adjudicator in every case. 59 of those appeals were allowed.

Jean-Benoit Louveaux, the asylum appellate lawyer who runs the project, said:

“Asylum seekers come to the UK fleeing persecution such as torture, rape, indefinite imprisonment without trial, and extra-judicial execution. It is a damning indictment of the UK that those seeking sanctuary here are then denied a fair hearing.

The project has shown that recent reforms to legal aid have made it much harder for asylum seekers with a valid claim to prove their case.

If the project’s results were repeated across the country, it would mean that asylum seekers are being wrongly refused publicly-funded legal representation for their appeals in almost four out of every five cases - and that a significant number of these people have a legitimate claim to some form of protection. It is time we acknowledge that asylum seekers do not represent a large wave of illegal immigration but a small persecuted minority which the UK government has abandoned.”

Read the report: Asylum_Appellate_Project_Final_Report.doc

Equality Act 2010 – IDS Brief feature article available for free

IDS Employment Law Brief has published an extensive, in-depth analysis of the Equality Act 2010.

The feature article, ‘Equality Act 2010 – the future of fairness?’, reviews the main changes that the Act will introduce to discrimination and equal pay law.

It draws attention to new pitfalls for employers and highlights the measures that will depend on the result of the General Election.

The article, which will appear in the next edition of IDS Brief, is now freely available to subscribers and non-subscribers alike.

The article also highlights the extent to which the Act’s impact is still unknown. Section 1, for example, introduces a new duty on public bodies to address socio-economic inequality arising from social class or family background.

This could leave public bodies open to judicial review proceedings for failure to consider the duty when recruiting.

There are also important changes to the territorial scope of discrimination law.

Currently, those who work ‘wholly or partly’ in Great Britain are protected, subject to certain criteria, as are some employees who work wholly outside Great Britain.

The Equality Act is silent as to its territorial scope, leaving it open to a narrower interpretation by judges. The feature article is available free to help lawyers, HR professionals, trade unionists, public bodies and employees prepare for the changes contained in the Act’s 251 pages.

Subscribers will receive a comprehensive IDS Employment Law Guide to the Equality Act 2010, taking into account the position of the next Government, later this year.Feel free to circulate this article to all who may find it useful.

Click here to view the article.Click here for more information on IDS Employment Law Brief.

South Asian 'slave brides' causing concern in UK

By Rahila Bano BBC Asian Network

Research has found victims believe it is difficult to report abuse

Hundreds of women who came to the UK from South Asia to marry say they have been treated as domestic slaves by their in-laws, the BBC has learned.

More than 500 who applied for residence in 2008-09 after their marriages broke down were deported because they could not prove any abuse had taken place.

Police and charities are concerned the incidents are not reported because of family pressure and fear of reprisals.

The UK Border Agency said measures were in place to try to prevent such abuse.

'Bloodied nose'

The women complaining of being treated as slaves by their families come from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

One woman in her 20s, says she was imprisoned by her mother-in-law for three years at their house in the north of England. She does not want to be named.

She has now started to come to terms with her ordeal, a year after her mother-in-law was prosecuted, but she says she still lives with the fear inside her.

"One day my mother-in-law beat me up really badly," she says.

"There was a lot of blood coming out of my mouth and nose - I couldn't tell anyone, call anyone or go anywhere.

"I used to get up at dawn and clean the whole house, scrub the floors, clean the windows, do the washing, cook. In between I'd have to sew."

She tried to kill herself twice. Eventually she managed to escape after her mother-in-law left her bedroom door unlocked.

"Staying inside all the time, not being allowed to watch TV or go out... I thought I'd rather be dead than live like this."

Marai Larasi says there is a lack of services for women

Research by Imkaan, the national charity for Black and Asian victims of domestic violence, shows how difficult it is for other Asian women to report abuse. It surveyed 124 women who use Asian refuges across the country.

"A woman may not speak English, may not be aware of what's available in terms of services, she may be in a situation where everywhere she goes her abuser or a family member - who may be colluding in the abuse - is actually going with her," says Imkaan director Marai Larasi.

"So her opportunity to disclose the abuse is compromised. There's also a real lack of services for women in this position."

There are concerns that this lack of reporting is leading many abused women from South Asia to eventually be deported when their marriages break down and they apply to stay in the UK.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEAVE TO REMAIN APPLICATIONS 2008/9 Pakistani: 240 Bangladeshi: 100 Indian: 100 Source: Home Office

Home Office rules state that any foreign national whose marriage breaks up within two years because of domestic violence can apply for indefinite leave to remain, but they must have reported the incident at the time to a person in authority - such as a GP or police officer.

Figures released by the Home Office show that more than half the number of South Asian brides who say they have been victims of domestic abuse in the UK have been deported in the last two years because they could not prove abuse had taken place.

Out of 980 applications for leave to remain in the UK in 2008 and 2009, only 440 women were allowed to stay.

In a statement, the UK Border Agency said: "We take our role in providing protection to women very seriously. We already have a number of measures in place to try and provide more directed support such as specific instructions, assessment of the quality of decisions and training for case workers."

After the highly-publicised case of Naseebah Bibi last year, Lancashire Police say they believe the problem is widespread in some communities.

Bibi was jailed for treating her three daughters-in-law as slaves at their home in Blackburn.

"The women are facing pressure, not only from immediate family but also their extended family abroad who may be relying on the people in this country to finance them to help improve their lives," says Lancashire Police's Det Con Dave Souch, who led the Naseebah Bibi Inquiry.

His colleague Sgt John Rigby described it as the "Cinderella syndrome".

He adds: "The problem with slave labour, as it's been tagged, is probably far bigger than what we may expect - we can only go on the cases that are brought to our attention.

Sgt John Rigby says the problem is widespread

"But we know from the partner agencies we work alongside - like the Women's Aid Forums - who can tell you it's widespread."

Another woman, also in her 20s, was forced to flee her in-laws with her child. She was also too scared to reveal her identity.

She explained: "If I made tea, it was for her or someone else. I didn't have permission to drink tea with them because in the 15-20 minutes it would take, housework would not get done.

"She would swear at my family, and accuse me of taking things. If any money or jewellery had been misplaced I would get the blame."

She, too, was not allowed to speak to anyone outside of the family and was not allowed to go out by herself.

"Even a servant is allowed to have a break, but I was used like a machine," she recalls.

"The worst thing about it was that my husband wasn't there for me. I'd have done everything for him without complaining - but he didn't care about me or his baby."

She managed to escape after a year-and-a-half. She was rescued by her midwife, who alerted the authorities.

'Small proportion'

Parveen Javaid, domestic violence co-ordinator at Manchester-based Pakistani Resource Centre, said: "On average we deal with 20 to 30 cases a month where we give advice and support to women who are victims of mothers-in-law.

"The majority of cases I deal with are women who've been kept as slaves - abuse within the house."

To put this into context, just over 37,000 women have come to the UK on spousal visas in the last five years and while domestic violence workers say most of these marriages are genuine and successful, a small proportion of those marriages do fail.

What is clear is that this is still a hidden problem within South Asian communities.

It will remain so, unless women are encouraged to come forward and report it to the authorities.

Tower Hamlets Advice Organisations Social Policy Forum meeting - Agenda

Tower Hamlets Advice Organisations Social Policy Forum meeting

Thursday 11th March 2010 3pm

Agenda

Introductions and apologies.

Identifying and recording Social Policy issues – CAB presentation.

Review of current Social Policy work, including Money Advice, Housing and Welfare Benefits forums.

Discussion of areas where we could work together more effectively at both local and national level.

A.O.B

Date of next meeting.

Tower Hamlets Advice Agencies Social Policy Forum

Dear All,
I would like to confirm that the Tower Hamlets Advice agencies Social Policy forum will take place on Thursday 11th March at 3pm.
The venue is Account 3, 1 - 9 Birkbeck Street, London E2 6JY, which is very near Bethnal Green tube.
Please find attached the agenda and please let us know if you want to add anything. It would be very helpful if you could indicate how many people from your organisation will be attending.
I look forward to seeing you on the 11th March.
Regards
Jess Vivian
--
Adviser and Social Policy Coordinator
Tower Hamlets Citizens Advice Bureau
32 Greatorex Street
London E1 5NP
020 7247 1050

Public Accounts Committee - Ninth Report

The procurement of legal aid in England and Wales by the Legal Services Commission

This report covers the Committee's examination of the procurement and administration of legal aid in England and Wales on the basis of two reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General: his report on the qualification of the accounts of the Legal Services Commission for 2008-09

We took evidence from witnesses from the Ministry of Justice (the Department) and the Legal Services Commission on the Commission's financial management and governance, on how criminal legal aid is delivered, and on the Commission's skills and capacity to manage change.

The Legal Services Commission—a Non-Departmental Public Body of the Ministry of Justice—spends £2.1 billion a year on buying civil and criminal legal aid, mainly from solicitors and barristers, and a further £125 million on administration.

The Commission has successfully arrested the increase in legal aid spending in the last five years, but we found it is an organisation with poor financial management and internal controls and deficient management information. These weaknesses resulted in the Commission having its annual accounts qualified for 2008-09 and an assessment that its procurement and administration of criminal legal aid posed risks to value for money.

The Committee was very concerned that such weaknesses in the Commission's performance had occurred when the Ministry of Justice spends over £2 million a year itself on legal aid policy matters and on overseeing the Commission. We found confusion and uncertainty about the respective roles of the two organisations which had led to duplication of effort on some issues and a lack of clarity about who should be responsible for others.

Because the Commission is the sole buyer of legal aid, it is important that it knows it is paying the right price for this and the effects its policies are having on the sustainability of providers. But it does not know enough about the costs and profitability of firms to know if it has set its fees at an appropriate level. Moreover, there are gaps in the arrangements to assure the quality of criminal legal aid procured which make it harder to assess whether the services delivered represent good value for money.

The Commission considered the introduction of tendering would remove the imperative for it to know the market, because prices would be set by competition. The recently announced abandonment of its plans to introduce its tendering proposals following representations from the legal profession leaves the Commission not able to assess if it is paying a reasonable price for legal aid.

In particular, significant expenditure is incurred on the largest cases that take place primarily in the Crown Court and a small number of barristers are earning substantial fees from such cases. Despite playing a more active role in managing these cases, the Commission has not done the analysis to determine if its current approach is cost effective.

The Commission has been responsible for implementing significant reforms to legal aid, which were recommended by Lord Carter of Coles in 2006. However, constant changes in staff at senior level—which have been costly and disruptive—and poor planning of the changes has meant that reforms have often been delayed, have not always kept to their timetable and have not been properly evaluated to assess their impact.


see full report at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmpubacc/322/32202.htm

Bar Council to launch legal action against MoJ

Monday 08 February 2010 by Catherine Baksi

The Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association are set to take the government to court for the first time in 20 years over what they claim are ‘inadequate and unfair’ consultations on new fees for criminal legal aid work.

They have instructed solicitors to take the first step towards a judicial review of the consultations published respectively by the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission on advocates’ graduated fees and very high cost (criminal) cases.

The bar’s principal basis for the claim is that the consultation exercise is ‘inadequate and unfair’.

In a press release issued today the Bar Council said its decision to proceed had ‘not been taken lightly’ and it had been more than 20 years since it last instituted proceedings against the government.

It said the Bar Council had consistently put forward proposals designed to safeguard and promote the administration of justice, without seeking recourse to legal action, and had requested a change of approach from the MoJ and LSC.

The Bar Council said the conduct of the consultation process – with two separate papers on issues that are ‘inextricably linked’ and a third unpublished paper on the introduction of a single graduated fee – was so flawed that judicial review is the only option.

Bar chairman Nicholas Green QC said: ‘The Bar Council has thought long and hard about this decision but the process of consultation on these proposals, frankly, has been disjointed and chaotic.’

‘Our decision to take the first step towards bringing proceedings for judicial review has been taken after very careful consideration of the options available to us.’

‘We asked the MoJ and the LSC to adopt a co-ordinated and fair approach to decision-making. But the government has refused to alter its present consultation process and did not even respond to our request for relevant data,’ said Green.

CBA chairman Paul Mendelle QC said: ‘Our concern is not simply about fee levels or the interests of the profession – it is about the need to ensure that the justice system functions well, and that criminal trials are carried out effectively and in the public interest.’

‘These consultations affect the future of the criminal justice system including some of the most lengthy and complex criminal cases. The government is undermining the system it claims to protect; we cannot stand by and let this happen,’ he added.

An MoJ spokesman said: ‘The MoJ and the LSC received a letter from the Bar Council and CBA on 21 January requesting the deadlines for our current consultations on advocates’ graduated fees and very high cost cases be extended.

‘We consider that the current deadlines give adequate time for stakeholders to respond properly and fully to both consultations. We hope the Bar Council and CBA will reconsider their position.

‘The proposals to pilot a single graduated fee will be consulted on in due course.’

Public Accounts Committee publishes damning report on LSC

Thursday 04 February 2010 by Catherine Baksi

The Ministry of Justice has announced measures to save £6m a year from the legal aid budget by ‘tightening the rules for civil legal aid’.

The announcement came as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a damning report on the Legal Services Commission’s performance in managing legal aid.

PAC chairman Edward Leigh MP criticised the LSC’s ‘lax’ financial management and internal controls, noting that it lacked the ‘basic information’ about the costs and profitability of law firms that would enable it to know whether it had set its fees at an appropriate level.

He said the LSC’s plans to introduce price-competitive tendering, which it was forced to abandon, were ‘hamstrung by its lack of knowledge of the market’. The LSC did not know whether the reforms it had introduced following Lord Carter’s 2006 report were working, or what effect they were having on the sustainability of firms, he stressed.

The PAC report said the LSC’s ‘lack of grip of the basics and lack of a clear strategic direction’ were compounded by ‘confusion and uncertainty’ over its relationship with the MoJ, which led to duplication of effort.

The report noted that the LSC spends £125m a year on administration. The committee’s conclusions followed an evidence session before the PAC in December, where senior individuals from the LSC and MoJ were called to account over the highly critical findings of two previous reports into legal aid management by the comptroller and auditor general.

Law Society president Robert Heslett said it was ‘vital’ that the LSC gained a better understanding of the supplier base to prevent firms being forced to abandon legal aid or become insolvent.

An LSC spokesman said it would consider the report carefully and respond fully in due course.

Meanwhile, reforms unveiled by the MoJ this week will restrict access to domestic civil legal aid for non-UK residents. The measures will also toughen up the application of the ‘public interest’ test to ensure that cases only receive funding if there is a ‘realistic prospect of the outcome of the case providing benefit to others’.

The MoJ said it will also ‘tighten the rules’ in relation to low-value damages claims against public bodies and judicial reviews.

Turning the Tide: mortgage and secured loan possession

Evidence from the free advice sector on mortgage and secured loan possession actions in England in July 2009

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/mortgage_and_secured_loan_arrears_final_report.pdf
Turning the tide ( 500kb)

SummaryThe financial crisis and recession have fuelled a rising tide of mortgage arrears and repossessions. Government, lenders and regulators have taken welcome action to protect people from losing their homes unnecessarily.

Our advisers see evidence of these initiatives working in many cases, but also some gaps. We asked those giving last minute advice to people at court on the day of their repossession hearings about the details of 452 cases they had seen in county courts in England in July 2009.

Job loss and other loss of income were the most common reasons given for mortgage arrears.

Overall, 77 per cent of clients advised avoided immediate loss of their home.

But their circumstances suggest up to half could find it difficult to sustain repayments set by the court unless their incomes recover quickly.

In a third of recorded cases, advisers considered the lender had not complied with the mortgage pre-action protocol, which requires them to take court action as a last resort after offering borrowers other options for dealing with their arrears.

Although judges did ask questions about this, they only applied sanctions for non-compliance in six cases. Sub-prime lenders who specialise in lending to higher risk borrowers were taking court action earlier than high street lenders.

A few sub-prime lenders in particular had significantly more court cases than their share of the mortgage market would suggest. Low income households were the most likely to lose their homes.

There appeared to be some under-claiming of support for mortgage interest (SMI), and many borrowers were paying higher monthly interest rates than would be covered by SMI payments.

This report suggests the tide of mortgage repossessions has not yet turned. It calls for further action by lenders, regulators and Government to strengthen help to protect people from avoidable homelessness.

The Alliance for Inclusive Education

The Alliance for Inclusive Education is looking for a new Chairperson to lead our organisation. We are a national campaigning organisation led by disabled people with support from allies. We want to hear from people who are passionate about equality and justice and believe in the right of all learners to be part of a diverse and inclusive education system.
We are also looking for people to join our trustee board.For information on how to apply please contact: Tara Flood on 020 7737 6030 or email info@allfie.org.uk