subject: A good day for incompetent bureaucracy [print this page] A good day for incompetent bureaucracy
As a component of the coalition's spending reductions, financing for legal aid is being reduced. Even though specific organizations are anywhere from annoyed to furious at different programs the coalition is preparing to cut, limiting legal aid may well wind up being one of the most damaging. Without legal aid funding, Britains welfare system lacks an essential check on corruption.
When the impoverished require the assistance of solicitors in London, they have no options besides lawyers made available through legal aid programs. Post spending cuts, only the most extreme cases will have a hope of accessing a lawyer.
Will the financially deprived be able to participate in the legal system? In a word, no. The class that needs legal representation the most is about to become powerless to acquire it.
As depressing as this actuality is, it is not the most damning argument against the reductions. The main difficulty is that the legal aid cuts essentially remove the most effective check against dodgy and inefficient bureaucracy. Even senior, experiencedLondon solicitors find bureacracy in general and benefit cases in particular overwhelmingly difficult and nuanced.
The notion that those who are economically disadvantaged and have most likely received extremely substandard quality education can represent themselves is unrealistic. According to Mind, a top mental health charity in England and wales, 40% of those in the present incapacity benefit are mentally ill, most with depression. Many have attempted suicide, or have serious medical conditions and are in need of treatment.
That these individuals should have virtually no access to legal services is simply not a good idea; it is too seductive for the corrupt and unethical to take advantage of them. Why should Britain pay for a welfare system in which needy persons lack the ability to legally defend themselves against chronic discrimination and injustice inbedded in the bureacracy itself?
Lawyers in London, who sacrificed high paying jobs to help the disadvantaged, may as well be told to cease and desist. This message is not what those working to help the impoverished should be receiving. It is time to reexamine the legal aid cuts, or better yet stop them.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
