Londoners will be hit hardest by the government’s planned legal aid cuts, a survey published by the Legal Action Group (LAG) has found.
It has calculated that the capital will lose £9.33m under the proposed reforms in funding for housing, employment, debt, welfare benefits and immigration advice. This will remove advice from 77,000 people - costing the taxpayer £55m in knock-on costs, the survey disclosed.
The survey also revealed widespread opposition to the planned cuts, with 88% of the 1,600 polled saying that advice on common legal problems should be free to all, or free to those earning about, or below, the national average income.
The report, London Advice Watch, found that nationally, the strongest support for free publicly funded legal services for everyone, regardless of income, was expressed in London.
It also revealed that free legal advice is not used only by the poorest residents; significant numbers of all social classes had used advice services.
LAG put this down to the fact that a greater number of higher income families in London have sought benefits advice because a higher proportion qualify for benefits because of the higher cost of living.
The survey also confirmed findings from a previous LAG survey that barriers exist to people from the lowest social classes using telephone advice services and that the latter are reluctant to do so. For this reason LAG reiterated its view that the government’s proposal to introduce a telephone gateway as the sole route to legal aid services is 'flawed'.
LAG director Steve Hynes said the cuts will threaten 'many' of the capital’s legal aid firms with closure and deprive many people of advice.
'This is a wake-up call from Londoners to the government - these cuts will be hugely unpopular,' he said.
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