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Kingston law centre faces uncertain future
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| Staff at the Kingston and Richmond law centre |
Staff at Kingston and Richmond Law Centre say they fear vulnerable people will lose a vital safety net after cuts to how legal aid is funded.
The centre, based in Canbury Park Road, offers legal representation to people who cannot afford private fees and is part of five law centres in south-west London facing closure after funding cuts by the Legal Services Commission (LSC).
Michael Ashe, chief executive of south-west London Law Centres, said £275,000 of funding had already been lost since October last year.
Changes by the LSC mean instead of paying law centres an hourly rate, they are paid a fixed fee per case.
Mr Ashe said this only covers a few hours work, meaning staff spending extra time on complicated cases go unpaid.
"More people will be homeless and sleeping rough, more people won'y have enough money to pay for their homes or their bills, more people will be deported illegally and more people will be discriminated against at work," he said.
Expert solicitors at the Kingston and Richmond Branch deal with immigration, employment, housing and welfare benefits and staff say closure is a very real threat.
Marie Ghose, an immigration solicitor at the centre, said: "Even though we're not a profit making organisation, we have to be financially viable.
"We deal with people at the end of the line facing serious problems such as evictions and repossessions. If we close, these people just won't have a safety net.
"The threat of closure is very distracting but all the solicitors are committed and we're just trying to carry on and do the best we can for our clients."
The LSC denied that people would be left without representation and said meetings and visits with the centre had been organised.
They also said the fixed fees offered "value for money" for taxpayers and "transitional payments" had been in place since April 2007 to help ease providers into the new system.
Gareth Britten, from the LSC, said: "The centre has been fully paid for all the work it has claimed for its LSC contracts and we will continue to support it sympathetically through its difficulties.
"When a case costs more than three times the fixed fee, it is classed as an exceptional case and the costs will be paid for at hourly rates."
5:26pm Tuesday 25th March 2008
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