Legal Aid Reform

legal aid imageThe Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is currently going through the House of Commons. Rethink Mental Illness is concerned that cuts to the legal aid budget will mean that people are not able to access the advice and support they need.

Government proposals will reduce the legal aid budget by £350 million. These cuts will affect what advice is funded by legal aid and who is eligible for help. People on benefits, for example, will no longer automatically be entitled to legal aid. A number of services such as welfare benefits advice will not be funded at all, while others, such as housing advice will only be funded when there is a very serious risk of homelessness, which means people cannot get help early on when a problem arises which would prevent them reaching a crisis situation.

What is Rethink doing?

Rethink Mental Illness submitted a joint response with Mind to the Green Paper proposals for Legal Aid. You can download our response here:

Joint response to Legal Aid Reform (368 kb) [doc]

Rethink is also a member of the Justice for All campaign. Justice for All is a coalition of charities, legal and advice agencies, politicians, trade unions, community groups and members of the public. Together we are campaigning to ensure everyone is treated fairly under the law, no matter who they are, how much money they have or where they live.