A charity that produces free expert guides for people who can’t afford legal advice says its future is in jeopardy after losing government funding at three weeks’ notice.
Law for Life offers online handbooks on topics such as dividing pensions fairly in a divorce, dealing with eviction notices, dealing with workplace disputes, and appealing decisions about disability benefits.
The government says the charity has failed to apply for more money through a support grant.
But Law for Life claims that no other service currently funded provides similar, essential assistance to “person-seeking litigants” and others dealing with the law without a lawyer.
The Law for Life charity produces free guides for people who cannot afford legal advice
It has launched a fundraiser asking for £2.50 donations from users of its Advicenow site, which it says has risen by 20 per cent over the past year to over a million, with particularly high traffic from people with disabilities or low incomes.
The charity has a free one Divorce Retirement Survival Guide, written with the help of top lawyers.
Fears for the future of the charity have sparked high-profile support for the online service Advicenow, including from former Pensions Minister Steve Webb, now a partner at consultants LCP, and This is Money’s pensions columnist.
“I’ve seen firsthand the high-quality materials Advicenow has produced, including a highly regarded simple English language guide to splitting pensions in divorce,” he says.
“I hope the government will reconsider and restore its funding to this very important charity that has done so much good for so many people.”
Attorney Rhys Taylor, an expert on pensions and divorces, says: “With the disappearance of legal aid in most cases, Law for Life/Advicenow has become a fundamental part of the legal ecosystem, explaining the law and procedure clearly and distinctly to those who cannot afford legal representation.
“The loss of funding for this vital lifeline is nothing short of catastrophic.”
Dr. Lisa Wintersteiger, CEO of Law for Life, says: “In the past year we have seen record levels of engagement with our services, demonstrating that we are meeting a very real need for large numbers of people who cannot find the help and support they need elsewhere.
“Keeping our information accurate and up-to-date and producing new manuals and support takes time and money. It would be disastrous if so many people are not supported by the withdrawal of public funds from our work.’
The charity claims its core funding – generally at least £100,000 a year, but £150,000 a year over the past two years – has been cut with just three weeks’ notice, putting its entire service at risk.
It believes that without its service, no one will provide the same in-depth guidance to people who have no choice but to go to court themselves.
In turn, the justice system will become even more ‘clogged’ with people who don’t know what they are doing and cannot represent themselves effectively.
And it notes that the quality and reputation of Advice is such now that judges, among other things, direct the public to its information to help them navigate the legal system.
Wintersteiger added: ‘More than a decade after the legal aid cuts, the government is funding us and sending people to Advicenow as the primary digital portal for litigants in England and Wales.
“At a time of unprecedented challenge for the many people who simply cannot afford a lawyer, the decision to turn off the lights within a month is a disgraceful custody failure.”
Law for Life says civil legal aid trends show a huge reduction in spending from £1.26bn in 2010/2011 to £880m in 2021/22), with a devastating impact on people trying to access legal aid, exacerbating the backlog of cases and waiting times that continue to grow.
It also claims that many of the services that do receive government funding direct people to Advicenow or use its guides to support their own users.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said: ‘We are investing record amounts to ensure thousands of vulnerable people have access to free legal support – and our new additional investment of £10m means more charities than ever will be able to provide these essential services.’
Instead of funding being cut, Law for Life simply failed to apply for the Outcomes Improvement through Legal Aid grant, the MoJ said.
This works by funding free legal advice and support services for people with welfare, housing, family or debt issues to address their problems before going to court, and providing free legal representation to people whose cases require litigation, the MoJ explains.
The grant is awarded through a competitive bidding process conducted by an intermediary, the Access to Justice Foundation.
There is a £10 million funding boost for the grant, enabling 59 charities to provide free legal support, building on a £25 million investment since 2014.
Clare Carter, managing director of The Access to Justice Foundation, says: ‘MoJ is right when they say that this funding was not cut and that Law For Life was simply not successful in an open round of funding.
“I can’t comment specifically on their situation, but for context, we had £10m to allocate in our last round of funding.
‘We have received applications from 221 organizations for a total of £35 million. Inevitably, therefore, many were destined to be disappointed. We were able to award a grant to 59 of those applicants.
“For many years there has been a large and growing gap between the financial needs of the frontline consultancy sector and the amount of money that we and other grant-making organizations in the sector have available to allocate. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated this problem.
‘It is therefore inevitable that there will be many good applications that simply cannot be honoured, and that one organization does not fund another.
“Many frontline organizations are living hand to mouth financially and are on the verge of closing with immediate consequences for their customers. We remain committed to raising additional funds for free legal advice.’
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