EMPLOYMENT: legal aid changes hit vulnerable workers


Changes to the legal aid funding regime have left up to two million vulnerable workers without access to employment rights advice, a Trades Union Congress (TUC) survey revealed this week.



The research found that 'employment rights advice deserts' made it difficult for Britain's two million vulnerable workers to find affordable help. Less than one-third of Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) now had an employment specialist and, following recent closures, there were just 56 law centres providing free legal advice across England and Wales.



The TUC survey also pointed to a 46% drop between 2001 and 2006 in employment lawyers undertaking legal aid work, adding: 'Since 1997, there has been a real terms drop in civil legal aid spend of around 24%.'



Meanwhile, CAB social policy adviser James Sandbach warned that the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) plan to roll out one-stop-shop Community Legal Advice Centres (CLACs) is putting advice bureaux at risk of closure.



He said: 'Local authorities and the LSC have failed to consider the long-term impact on the voluntary sector of contracting out CLACs. We are concerned that competitive tendering [for a contract to provide legal services through the CLAC], instead of offering grants to existing organisations, could close CABs that don't win tenders.'



The LSC argues that CLACs will bring efficiency savings without excluding the voluntary sector.



Jonathan Rayner and Anita Rice