Our client “Z” is both blind and deaf. Alone, with no representationhe came to us in desperation. The Home Office had refused his asylum application without absolutely taking into account his particular needs or his actual asylum request. They then tried to make him homeless. The system had failed him – it was just the work of the wider community and charities like ours this prevented him from slipping through the cracks.

It’s times like these that people need lawyers – but the vast majority can’t afford private fees. It is for these people that legal aid was established in the 1940s – to protect vulnerable people and provide access to justice. However, the colossal cuts to legal aid over the past fourteen years have created a slow, complex and bureaucratic system.

In addition to the enormous difficulties faced by asylum seekers in the UK, those who end up there are finding their access to essential support reduced. In our awareness-raising work among Red Crosswe have seen victims of domestic violence struggle to secure the rights of their children and themselves due to lack of access to legal advice. People are waiting months or even years for a decision on their cases due to the Home Office’s huge backlogs.

People across the country are struggling to find legal help. 50% of people seeking asylum cannot find a lawyer with legal aid, and there is virtually no help for people with immigration cases without asylum. Some of the people who come to us for help have already been turned away by twelve to fifteen providers, due to the high demand and very limited supply of legal aid advice.

But urgent reform of the legal aid system makes good sense. When people can get support, they can access their rights, put down roots and play a key role in their community. It also makes financial sense – recent research by the Access to Justice Foundation and the Bar Council found that “on average, the provision of free specialist legal advice results in a saving of around £9,100 per person in the first year to the government. For every £1 spent on free specialist legal advice and its outcomes in 2023, the Government made a saving of £2.71. Overall, they found that for every 100,000 clients receiving free legal advice, the public finances saved around £908 million.

But legal aid work has become unsustainable, civil legal aid rates have not increased since 1996, so doing legal aid work is a loss-making exercise. Whatever our principles, even law firms have bills to pay. So it’s a delicate balancing act for us to provide this essential service while keeping our heads above water.