Details of advice fund announced

LAG has been advised by the Cabinet Office that the £20m fund to assist not for profit (NFP) agencies hit by spending cuts will be officially launched today (Monday 21 November).

The fund will be aimed at frontline NFP advice providers in England, which give advice on one or more of the following areas of law - debt, welfare benefits, housing and employment. To qualify for a grant of between £40,000-70,000, organisations must have suffered a ten per cent cut in funding for advice services from either central or local government in the current year (2011/12). According to the Cabinet Office, priority will be given to those organisations with a high level of cuts which have not received cash from the Transition Fund. A review of NFP advice services has also been announced.

'This is a serious commitment to help free advice services carry on delivering much needed help to people struggling with debt, welfare benefits, employment and housing problems in these difficult economic times. The Cabinet Office will also be carrying out a review of free advice services to ensure that we do all we can to help the sector,' said Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society.

England will receive £16.8m of the £20m fund, with the balance being split between the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The fund will be administered by the Big Lottery Fund and details of how to apply to the fund will be posted on its website by the end of November.

LAG welcomes this announcement. NFP organisations have been hard hit by cuts in legal aid and other funding. We have also argued that the government needs to consider developing a strategy to better fund and co-ordinate the provision of NFP services. LAG hopes this review will be the starting point for this. However, we would warn that if no cash is made available on an ongoing basis, the fund announced today will be seen as providing nothing more than a transition from the frying pan into the fire for advice services facing big cuts in legal aid funding next year.

Both NFP and private practice legal aid providers were hit by a ten per cent reduction in fees last month (October). Next year the government plans to remove employment, debt and welfare benefits law completely from the legal aid scheme, as well as large parts of housing and immigration law. In total, £80.5m funding for this work will be lost if the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which is receiving its second reading in the House of Lords today, is approved without amendment. LAG estimates that around £50m of this money is currently paid to NFP organisations and the government plans to cut this from October next year.

Particularly in these difficult economic times, LAG believes the government is wrong to abandon members of the public who need advice with what are everyday legal problems. We are urging the House of Lords to amend the bill and the government to rethink its plans.

Employment law

LAG published the eighth edition of Employment law: an adviser's handbook by Tamara Lewis last week. The book is a comprehensive guide to employment law and it deals with recent changes in the law such as the definition of an employee, developing case-law on equal pay and the repeal of the short-lived statutory dispute resolution procedures introduced by the current government.

Over the years, organisations from both sides of industry have usually reacted to legislative changes in employment law introduced by governments with either condemnation or praise depending on how they perceive the changes will impact on their interests. Especially in the early days of the current government, Tony Blair’s 'third way' philosophy purported to break away from the old certainties of the class-based politics which employment law reflected.

The Employment Act 2002 was the vehicle supposed to bring about a New Labour nirvana in the world of employment relations, free from class and other vested interests. The Act tried to appease the interests of employers continually peeved at the ever-spiralling number of Employment Tribunal (ET) claims by introducing statutory minimum disputes and disciplinary procedures that had to be followed in the workplace. The aim of the procedures was to reduce ET claims and, most importantly, keep employees in work by resolving disputes while they were still in employment. The procedures became mired in legal controversy though as employers focused on getting the procedure right rather than on their original aim of resolving disputes.

ET numbers are again rising due to the impact of the recession. The most disturbing statistic for ET claims has remained constant over the years, less than one in 20 applicants who are dismissed return to their job. The repealed procedures were flawed, but early advice and representation for employees remains the most effective way of avoiding injustice and keeping people in employment. Tamara Lewis’s book will continue to play an important part in equipping advisers to do this.