Tribunal

freckles said:

Rang welfare rights they said they wanted £300 obviously car,nt afford that

That does not surprise me one bit!

Unfortunately those advice agencies that were supported by the legal aid system have had to reduce the number of qualified staff as there is no longer any money by way of grants from your local Council or financial support from Legal Aid.

Consequently the professionals need an income so are left with having to charge for the advice and help they give.

CAB and the like are still there but you will find that they are over stretched and under staffed. 

In the real world a fee of £300 is extremely small. Most solicitors have an hourly charge out rate of over £300 an hour!!

Unfortunately it was the minority that ruined our ability to use the legal aid scheme sensibly. The government decided to shut down most of the scheme as the abuse was so widespread amongst the legal profession.
Added to that, government thinking was that those who wanted to increase or maintain their benefit income should not be allowed to use taxpayers money to get more out of the system. I have heard this argument many times "why should those that seek to live on benefits have the help of legal professionals that are paid out of the tax that I pay?"  
It was all part of the same reason why the benefit cap was brought in, the lack of general increase in benefits on a yearly basis and the reduction in how much housing benefit you could receive - "we can't have those living on benefits living in a bigger, more expensive house that I can afford out of my wages" was said to me many times. 

They were satisfied that the Welfare system was easily understood by the majority of claimants that they did not need help with claiming from it. They accepted that there would always be voluntary and charitable organisations and as such the few that did need help could obtain help from them.

This is a subject that really makes my blood boil, and once again it shows how the thinking of a political party comes before the beliefs, hopes and ambition that a politician of that party personally holds.