Labour to restore legal aid to help people challenge flawed benefit decisions
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The next Labour government will restore legal aid for social
security benefit appeals, the Shadow Justice Secretary Richard
Burgon MP will announce today. Labour will restore legal
aid funding for people seeking legal advice to appeal benefits
decisions. The move will help to ensure that victims of flawed
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decisions are able to defend
themselves and get the financial support they are entitled
to. Ministry of...Request free
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The next Labour government will restore legal aid for
social security benefit appeals, the Shadow Justice Secretary
Richard Burgon MP
will announce today.
Labour will restore legal aid funding for people seeking legal advice to appeal benefits decisions. The move will help to ensure that victims of flawed Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decisions are able to defend themselves and get the financial support they are entitled to. Ministry of Justice figures show that thousands of ill and disabled people are wrongly denied, or face long delays in receiving, the financial support they are entitled to when benefit applications are wrongly rejected, only to be reversed on appeal many months later. Over two thirds of appeals against Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) decisions are successful. The number of people receiving legal aid to challenge welfare benefit decisions has fallen by 99% since 2012-13, with Labour arguing that this leaves vulnerable people unable to defend and uphold their rights. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights recently said that cuts in legal aid meant many could no longer afford “to challenge benefit denials or reductions and are thus effectively deprived of their human right to a remedy.” Labour also says that restoring legal aid will encourage the DWP to get more decisions right first time, reducing the costs incurred by the Ministry of Justice due to flawed DWP decisions. The Ministry currently spends over £100m of taxpayers money each year administering appeals at the Social Security and Child Support Tribunals. Studies also show that providing people with early legal advice saves the state money as problems are resolved early and avoid spiralling into costly social problems. Citizens Advice, for example, has calculated that for every £1 of legal aid expenditure on benefits advice, the state could save £8.80. Richard Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "Flawed benefits decisions create unnecessary hardship, stress and anxiety for people often already in desperate situations due to illness, unemployment or disability. Yet legal support against dodgy benefits decisions has fallen off a cliff edge – down 99% - at a time when people need it more than ever. "People should never be expected to navigate a complex appeals process all by themselves. That can force some to give up their claim altogether after a wrong initial decision. Others endure months of stress trying to prepare their own case. It’s bad now but will be even more difficult after Universal Credit is rolled out. "Cuts to early legal advice have been a false economy. Ensuring that people are armed with expert legal advice to take on incorrect benefits decisions will not only help people get the financial support they are entitled to, it should make it less likely that flawed decision takes place in the first place, which would be good for the individuals themselves, and help to tackle the tens of millions of pounds spent on administering appeals against flawed decisions.” Ends
Notes to editors
Labour vows to restore legal aid for benefits appeal cases
if elected https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/dec/04/labour-vows-to-restore-legal-aid-for-benefits-appeal-cases-if-elected
1. Early Legal Advice
· Early
Legal Advice is the term used to cover advice and assistance, but
not representation, provided for a legal problem. It is the kind
of legal advice that many need when faced with flawed benefits
decisions or a rogue landlord.
· The
introduction of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of
Offenders Act (LASPO) in 2012 left many vulnerable people unable
to defend themselves in areas as fundamental as housing,
employment, immigration and welfare benefits. LASPO removed legal
advice for initial appeals (so-called First-tier Tribunal
appeals) against welfare benefit decisions. Legal aid was not in
scope for representation at Tribunals. · This policy would return the right of people to get legal advice on preparing an appeal on social security benefits. This would mean: cases with merit are encouraged and supported to appeal; cases without merit are discouraged from the Tribunal; the Tribunal receives better bundles to consider, reducing its workload; and would encourage more decisions to be got right first time limiting the distress and financial hardship of claimants.
2. Official
figures show a 99% drop in claimants granted legal help for
welfare benefits challenges
· The
total number granted legal aid in welfare benefits cases has
plummeted from 91,431 in 2012-13 to just 478 cases in 2017-18,
leaving vulnerable people without legal advice in often complex
cases. See Legal Aid Agency figures (tables 5.2)https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2018
· The
average waiting time for Personal
Independent Payment and Employment and Support
Allowance appeal hearings was 20 weeks
in 2017.https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-05-15/144385/ · Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights London said on 16 November 2018 that: “There have been dramatic reductions in the availability of legal aid in England and Wales since 2012 and these have overwhelmingly affected ill and disabled people, many of whom cannot otherwise afford to challenge benefit denials or reductions and are thus effectively deprived of their human right to a remedy. The LASPO Act (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act) gutted the scope of cases that are handled, ratcheted up the level of means-tested eligibility criteria, and substituted telephonic for many previously face-to-face advice services.” Seehttps://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/EOM_GB_16Nov2018.pdf · Cuts to legal aid have occurred at a time of greater need given the complex nature of welfare benefits law. As the final report of the 2017 Bach Commission into Access to Justice found: “The law on welfare benefits is particularly complicated – Liverpool Law Society, for example, described welfare benefits law to the commission as “increasingly complex” and the government itself has cited welfare benefits as an area of law which has become too complex. This means those who face a problem, for example being assessed as ineligible for jobseeker’s allowance, will frequently require legal help.
3. Studies suggest early advice could create savings for the state elsewhere
The 2014 report “The Business Case for Social Welfare Advice Services” cites a Citizens Advice study which estimates that: · For every £1 of legal aid expenditure on housing advice, the state potentially saves £2.34. · For every £1 of legal aid expenditure on debt advice, the state potentially saves £2.98. · For every £1 of legal aid expenditure on employment advice, the state potentially saves £7.13. · For every £1 of legal aid expenditure on benefits advice, the state potentially saves £8.80. It adds that “Similarly, the think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and AdviceUK, a network of independent advice agencies estimated the social return on investment for two cases (debt advice and housing advice) as over £9 for every £1 invested.” See https://www.lag.org.uk/?fileid=-17039
4. Reducing the costs incurred by the Justice Ministry from flawed DWP decisions.
· Claimants who are not satisfied with benefits decisions can make an appeal through a Tribunal managed by HM Courts and the Tribunals Service. The Ministry of Justice incurs significant costs for the legal processes associated with challenging flawed DWP benefits decisions. The Ministry spent £103m on Social Security and Child Support Tribunals in 2016/17.
· This
is in addition to the more than £100m the DWP has spent on
Personal Independent Payment and Employment and Support Allowance
reviews and appeals since October 2015.
The amount covers mandatory reconsiderations, an internal DWP
review and appeals to tribunals run by HM Courts and the
Tribunals Service. These figures were obtained by the Press
Association through a freedom of information
request.
· Sir
Ernest Ryder, the Senior President of Tribunals, has said the
quality of evidence provided by the Department for Work and
Pensions is so poor it would be “wholly inadmissible” in any
other court. He added that its “an inappropriate use of judicial
resources, it's an inappropriate experience for the users, and
the cost is simply not right.”
· Nearly
two-thirds (64%) of all appeals to the Social Security and Child
Support Tribunal are successful. See: Tribunals and gender
recognition certificate statistics quarterly: April to June 2018,
Ministry of Justice, main table SSCS_3
(Also below) · In 2017/18 the success rate for Tribunal appeals against Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) decisions was 68% for each benefit.
§ For ESA, in 47,788 cases an appeal led to the original decision being overturned. § For PIP, in 56,971 cases an appeal led to the original decision being overturned.
· 90%
of the total number of cases (162,744 of 178,849) cleared at
Social Security and Child Support Hearings in 2017/18 were for
appeals regarding Personal Independence Payments, Employment
support allowance, Disability Living Allowance decisions, and
Universal Credit. · Labour’s Shadow Justice and DWP teams are setting up a working group to look at ways to reduce the substantial appeal costs that both departments incur from flawed DWP decisions. It will look at how expenditure on appeals can be reduced by getting more decisions right-first-time.
5. Costs of policy
To restore Early Legal Advice to pre-LASPO levels for welfare benefits cases would cost £18m per annum and restore legal advice in around 90,000 cases. See Legal Aid Agency figures (tables 5.2. and 5.3) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-april-to-june-2018
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