Government to pilot early legal advice scheme

The government has announced plans to pilot a publicly funded early legal advice scheme to test the impact of early intervention in social welfare issues.

Justice minister Lord Wolfson outlined the plans in a letter to the justice select committee and in a short debate in the House of Lords on legal aid in social welfare law.

The government has laid a statutory instrument to bring legal advice for certain housing, debt and welfare benefits issues in scope of legal aid for the purposes of the pilots, which will be undertaken in Manchester and Middlesbrough.

Lord Wolfson said the pilot would ascertain “whether early provision of legally aided advice in these areas of law helps to encourage early resolution of housing issues (reducing homelessness long-term)”.

It would also “test the expansion of legal aid to an area of social welfare, demonstrate the possible benefits of advice in encouraging early resolution, and quantify the downstream benefits of early resolution to government”.

Recognising that individual’s legal problems often overlap and should be understood holistically he explained that “participants will receive comprehensive legally aided advice covering housing, debt, and welfare benefits. This will be provided free of charge, for a fixed number of hours, which may be spread across several sessions”.

It is hoped that the provision of early advice would ultimately reduce costs to government by preventing housing matters escalating into homelessness.

The work will be non-means and non-merits tested and there will be a new standard fee of £200.70.

Lawyers will be able to charge £57.43 an hour for preparation and attendance, £32.17 for travel and waiting time, and £4.56 per routine letter out and telephone call.

The government pilots are the latest initiatives to come out of its 2019 legal support action plan.