News

The coalition has announced that the axing of legal aid for benefits, debt and other areas of social welfare law is to be postponed for six months, in a sign that opposition to the cuts is having an effect. Cuts to legal aid would greatly reduce the funding available to advice agencies and law centres.

The government had planned to end legal aid for issues such as benefits in October 2012, but today it was announced that the date has been put back to April 2013. No reason has been given for the change. Suspicions are growing. however, that the huge amount of opposition even in the House of Lords –​ which has been packed with coalition peers –​ has forced the government to consider watering down or even abandoning their plans.

The official announcement can be downloaded here.

There are more details in the guardian here.