What are the benefits of a Welfare Lawyer

Thank you for the advice. I'm wondering if the recommendation comes because of a close relationship between social services and the Welfare lawyers rather than actual usefulness

Derek

Sorry about the double post, when I clicked Submit the first time I missed the notification about the moderation before the page refreshed back to the forum, so I thought i must have licked Cancel.

it was only when I submitted the second post that I saw the message. Oops

Re welfare lawyers, I was turned down for DLA mobility this summer and wanted to appeal. However, Citizens Advice told me I was too rich (benefits and a very small pension?), Age UK told me they didn't usually deal with working-age claimants and my council's welfare rights department is snowed under and didn't seem to think they would hav time to help either.

I decided not to appeal in the end, but wonder - with the spending squeeze now, and probably way more appeals for welfare rights workers to deal with, will most of us end up having to fight our own appeals?

colin I was given similar advice when I started my appeal.
I think the difficulty came from the fact of not being entitled to legal aid.
Welfare rights automatically assess you and tell you they cant help if you if you don’t meet their criteria . I got the impression I needed a lawyer too.
I went to CAB and they offered representation for free. You still have to be assessed for earnings but they don’t hold it against you. And will contact specialists etc on your behalf.

Colin Speirs wrote:

Sorry about the double post

It was actually a treble post, but don't worry, these things happen.

Regards

Derek

IMO if you have a decent case and a bit of common sense with the help of this type of site.... you should have a good chance of getting by, you should not have to get by but with so many people having claims and so little help out there thats as good as it gets

martha wrote:

colin I was given similar advice when I started my appeal.
I think the difficulty came from the fact of not being entitled to legal aid.
Welfare rights automatically assess you and tell you they cant help if you if you don’t meet their criteria . I got the impression I needed a lawyer too.
I went to CAB and they offered representation for free. You still have to be assessed for earnings but they don’t hold it against you. And will contact specialists etc on your behalf.

Some bureaux are able to offer free representation to people not eligible for legal aid and some aren't. Each bureau operates as a separate charity and they get funding from a variety of sources, including the legal services commission (legal aid) and local authorities. If their welfare funding comes from the LSC, their services will be means-tested. If they have funding from elsewhere, it may not be.