The government is set to announce plans to limit spending on legal aid within the UK. If carried out as envisaged the government is set to save £350 million of the £2.1 billion budget devoted to legal aid each year. However, as with all proposed changes to the law much criticism has followed and a predicted outcome is that of a loss of the social welfare area of the law.
The plan is set to largely target civil cases with £280 of the £350 million being saved from this area. Firstly by making it harder to claim civil legal aid through the reduction of the acceptance limit from those with less than £3000 worth of assets to those with less than £1000. Then finally the government will move to make all but the extreme exceptional circumstances ineligible.
The Ministry of Justice stands by its plans and the belief in the ‘need to ensure proper conditions and safeguards are built... to continue to justify paying out vast amounts of taxpayers cash’. However, with so much money being removed from the civil sector it is clear how the public are going to suffer, in particular when it comes to receiving legal advice and support on debt, housing, benefits, immigration, employment and personal injury, to mention a few. From this, critics are concerned the social welfare sector will suffer and this could result in undermining the constitutional principle that citizens must have access to justice.
Currently we still await the announcement of these plans and the impact these will have.
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