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75,000 young people set to lose legal aid

21 September, 2011

New report by JustRights and Sound Off For Justice shows 75,000 children and young people are set to lose legal aid

JustRights, the campaign co-ordinated by Youth Access and the Law Centres Federation for fair access to legal advice for children and young people, has published a joint report with the Law Society’s Sound Off For Justice campaign.

The report, Not Seen And Not Heard: how children and young people will lose out from cuts to civil legal aid, highlights official estimates that 6,000 children under the age of 18 and 69,000 vulnerable young adults aged 18 to 24 will lose access to legal aid in their own right as a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.

It would cost just £10 million to protect legal aid for all children and £40 million to protect all young adults – figures dwarfed by the knock-on costs for government that will result from these cases being left unresolved.

The cuts to legal aid come on top of massive cuts already being experienced by advice services for young people.

In addition, 140,000 children will be affected by legal aid being removed from their parents.

Read the report on the JustRights website

Just Rights Report