THE proposed Government’s legal aid cuts will have a devastating effect on Warrington charities according to two Labour councillors.
In a Motion to Full Council Cllr Kevin Bennet and Cllr Chris Vobe hit out at the impact of the Coalition’s “Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill” which received Royal Assent this May.
They called on the council to continue working closely with local agencies like the CAB and the Law Centre to ensure that everyone in the town retained access to justice when needed.
Cllr Bennet (pictured right) said: “The major cuts to Legal Aid being introduced by the Tory-led Government will have a very significant effect on local communities here in Warrington.
The cuts will bring new challenges, not only to the council’s budget, but to social cohesion as well.
“The Legal Action group calculates that this will mean over 650,000 people a year – including people here in Warrington – will no longer be able to access free help from a solicitor of an advice agency. Those 650,000 people represent a reduction of over 50% of the people current able to access these services.
“The same analysis shows that the not-for-profit and charitable sector will lose £51 million pounds per year. That is on top of the cuts already announced, and at a time when demand is rising.”
Meanwhile Cllr Vobe (pictured left) hit out at the Coalition government, branding the impact of Legal Aid cuts as “staggering” and “devastating”.
He said: “The very charities and voluntary organisations that David Cameron told us he wanted to see doing more, as part of “The Big Society”, are set to lose the very funding that they need to survive.
“Legal aid is currently available to help people navigate the complexities of welfare benefit administration, and appeal against inaccurate benefit decisions. That advice is sometimes crucial in determining the outcome of appeals, and is provided to over 135,000 welfare benefits cases every year. Over 67% of social welfare law advice is provided by charities.
“But the Coalition’s changes will remove welfare benefit cases from legal aid eligibility. That means people who need advice to assist in the appealing of inaccurate decisions will be denied this help.
“The impact of Legal Aid cuts is staggering and devastating. This Government seeks to deny people access to justice and pushes already vulnerable groups further into poverty.”
Both councillors stated that: “If ever the Government needs a U-turn, it needs one here.”
Legal aid cuts will be devastating for charities
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
3 Comments
Must admit that I have never come across any organisation or individual who relies on handouts to say anything other than any reduction in that handout will result in devastation, yet by and large they survive. Many of these organisations who rely on the largesse of the taxpayer are often self centred organisations who create well paid jobs for themselves, and provide little meaningful benefit for those they are meant to help. Anyway if these two gentlemen feel so strongly about the funding being provided why don’t they donate their council allowance, indeed all Labour members could do that, unless of course like most politicians they are not prepared to put their money where their mouths are. Guess if they all donated their allowances you could be talking of over £400,000. With regards to the comment: “The Legal Action group calculates that this will mean over 650,000 people a year – including people here in Warrington – will no longer be able to access free help from a solicitor of an advice agency.” How many people exactly will be affected in Warrington, and from what I can tell from a Google search, there are solicitors in Warrington who offer free help. I guess what is happening at Warrington Council is that its Labour Councillors are told by their head office what political questions and debates they must put at each council meeting in order to attack the central government, all seems like a waste of time and money to me, and maybe it would be better to scrap the meetings altogether.
They don’t all need to be told by head office, they can be told at home.
It’s time our WBC Councillors got to grips with some real issues affecting residents of the Borough and stopped playing politics. Many issues affecting the disadvantaged in our Town (the elderly, the infirm, school children etc) go unresolved while our Councillors discuss, at our cost, these issues that they cannot influence. Please get in the real world.