Report: Legal Aid Cuts to Hit Children and Young People Hard
The Law Centres Federation, together with Youth Access, co-ordinates the Just Rights coalition of thirty organisations campaigning to secure high-quality legal advice and representation for children and young people. Just Rights collaborated with the Sound Off for Justice to demonstrate the severe impact of planned legal aid cuts on children and young adults.
The report 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.
