Legal aid cuts have left the poor and people with disabilities unable to ‘challenge benefit denials or reductions’, the UN’s special rapporteur on poverty has said.
In a report into poverty and human rights in the UK, Professor Philip Alston said LASPO (the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012), which came into force in April 2013, had ‘gutted the scope of cases that are handled, ratcheted up the level of means-tested eligibility criteria, and substituted telephonic for many previously face-to-face advice services’.
Many people were ‘effectively deprived of their human right to a remedy’, he said. The wide-ranging report also highlighted the impact of austerity on local authorities, local services and the voluntary sector, and suffering caused by the rollout of universal credit.
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