Justice in a time of austerity (Pt 4)

I met Sharon Morgan in Ebbw Vale foodbank, a former steel town an hour by train from Cardiff in the heart of the South Wales valleys. She had the kind of complex benefit problems that urgently needed the attention of a legal aid social security law expert.

It was her misfortune that she lived in a legal aid advice desert. A single mother of three and grandmother of five, Sharon had been on disability benefits for years. She lives with her daughter and grandson. Until recently, her daughter was her carer. ‘We just about managed until my grandson died six months ago,’ she told me.

Universal credit was rolled out last June. Deductions were being taken from her benefits because of an advance made to cover the five-week wait for her first universal credit payment. Her daughter was also having to repay child tax credit that was erroneously