The 2023 means test review recommended changes but implementation was postponed until 2026.
By next year, a couple with two children will need to be surviving on £41 a day to qualify for full legal aid, 57% below the minimum income standard.
For a single person, it will be less than £9 a day, which is 81% below the minimum income. Both figures are cited from Professor Donald Hirsch and Professor Matt Padley’s 2024 updated legal aid means test report, commissioned by the Law Society and published this week.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: ‘In the King’s Speech, the government pledged to reduce homelessness and tackle violence against women and girls. These pledges simply cannot be fulfilled unless the recommendations of the means test review are urgently implemented.’
