02 December 2010
Legal aid providers were overpaid by £76.5m last year, the National Audit Office has revealed.
The overpayment, identified in the NAO’s annual audit of the Legal Services Commission, is a significant rise on the previous year’s overpayment—£24.7m in 2008/09.
The errors included £32.9m paid where eligibility for legal aid could not be demonstrated.
The remaining £43.6m was paid to providers who over-claimed for work. An additional £2.1m was erroneously charged by the Commission to clients. Immigration and family work accounted for the highest level of errors.
