The proposed cuts of 92% to the Not for Profit Sector will devastate Law Centres and CABS and leave half a million, often vulnerable people without access to legal representation. Advice funded by legal aid will be cut entirely to welfare benefits and education law. It will be restricted to housing and debt cases with an “immediate risk” of homelessness, and employment cases involving discrimination. Much legal aided family law will be limited to domestic violence.Legal aid cuts will affect funding for immigration applications and appeals based on rights to family and private life under Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights Act. The result will split families and deny access to funding to fight removal and deportation to those who have developed roots and formed loving relationships in their communities. Advice to people who have been granted refugee status to help them find jobs and training will also end. The proposed cuts will not only violate the human rights of extremely vulnerable people, they may result in the end of community advice services and the best, most experienced legal aid practitioners leaving the legal aid system because they are no longer adequately funded.
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