The chancellor’s raid on employers' national insurance will hit a London group of law centres to the tune of £33,000, it has emerged – as its chair of trustees urged the government to exempt charities from next year’s tax hike.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in last month’s budget that she will increase the rate of employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2 percentage points to 15% from 6 April. 

Allan Blake, chair of trustees for South West London Law Centres (SWLLC), told an event celebrating SWLLC’s 50th anniversary that its 40 staff and network of pro bono lawyers help thousands of people in need, 'but we know so many we cannot reach within the confines of our existing funding'.

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Law centres: Poor relations

Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Reeves announced that she will increase the rate of employers’ national insurance contributions to 15%

Source: Gary Roberts Photography/Shutterstock

The event heard that only a third of SWLLC's income comes from legal aid, with the rest coming from law firms, grant-funding bodies and individual donations.

‘It’s tough and it’s getting tougher,’ Blake said, before telling the event that SWLLC will now have to find some £33,569 as a result of the chancellor’s tax hike. ‘If you could exempt charities that would be wonderful,’ Blake told the event, which was attended by Labour MP Andy Slaughter, chair of the House of Commons justice select committee.

SWLLC has offices in Croydon, Wandsworth, and Merton and Sutton. 

In a Gazette feature on law centres last week, SWLLC chief executive Patrick Marples said SWLLC's annual deficits had reduced cash reserves to a 'precariously low level'. With 78% of its annual budget spent on salaries, 'the centre's current financial situation is dire', Marples said.

In 2022-23 SWLLC helped nearly 7,000 people, including 899 people facing eviction with emergency on-the-day court representation. In one case, one of SWLLC’s duty solicitors saved a mother from imminent eviction after discovering that her housing benefit had been unjustly terminated, which pushed her into rent arrears. The law centre successfully cleared her rent account and the council agreed to pay £2,400 in damages for inconvenience and distress, complete repairs to the property and restore her tenancy.

SWLLC’s Volunteer Lawyers Programme has nearly 400 dedicated volunteers providing an estimated £1.4m in pro bono work every year.