Our Work

The Law Centre promotes social justice and provides specialist legal support to advice giving organisations and disadvantaged individuals.

We deliver legal services to members in community care, employment, immigration, social security and mental health. We support the work of advice agencies through advice, casework, training, information, publications and policy development.

We aim to work closely with our membership of independent advice giving agencies and associate members including social services and probation offices, solicitors’ practices, trade unions and community based organisations.

We seek to promote the work of local, regional and specialist independent advice in partnership with Advice NI and Citizens Advice.

Our work is guided by our core values: professionalism, independence, accountability, responsiveness, and a commitment to social justice and equality.

Main Activities

• Advice line open to members, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 1.00pm.
• Casework and representation service. Strategic court work on referral from members.
• Training courses for experienced and new advisers.
• Frontline magazine four times a year, annual encyclopedia of rights, reports on changes to law and policy.
• A library and information service.
• Informed policy comment on changes to public policy and legislation.
• Quarterly practitioner meetings on social security, community care, migrant workers’ rights and immigration where advisers discuss legal issues and practitioner developments.

Chairperson and Director's Report

Making a difference in difficult times

The Law Centre is about making a positive difference to people’s lives. We are increasingly judged on the impact of the work we do.

Over the past few months, the Law Centre has been pivotal in encouraging government departments to take positive action. DHSSPS was persuaded to produce a single mental health and capacity bill. DSD was convinced not to introduce a cap on Housing Benefit levels for larger properties despite the restriction being introduced across Britain. The Home Office dropped proposals to harden enforcement arrangements for the Common Travel Area when people travel across the border. Unfortunately, the last of these issues is likely to return in other legislation at some point in 2010.

We recently received the Law Centre Federation’s Innovation award. The Federation paid tribute to the work to promote progressive policies towards migrant workers. This work continued with a paper highlighting the gaps in provision for migrant workers. The paper emphasized the economic and humanitarian cost of current policies. This proved prescient as, a week later, the world’s media focused on the plight of Roma people forced out of their homes in Belfast. We have worked hard to encourage the creation of a support fund and an audit of legislative and policy gaps. The proposals are a stretch in tough economic times but there has been considerable cross-departmental activity which gives some cause for hope.

On childcare, we have been able to complement the work of others by stressing the link between welfare reform proposals and sufficient good quality childcare. Here, unlike in England, Scotland and Wales, there is no strategy for childcare, no lead government department and no statutory duty to deliver adequate childcare. Highlighting this to the Social Security Advisory Committee led to the Committee recommending that the gap be addressed and focusing on the issue during its visit to Northern Ireland. As a result, local arrangements for moving lone parents towards work once the youngest child reaches a certain age involve interviews every thirteen weeks rather than every fortnight as applied elsewhere.

We secured funding from the Nuffield Foundation to conduct research into tribunal reform. This includes a survey of users’ views of the social security and industrial tribunal appeals systems. The research aims to encourage substantive as well as administrative reform of tribunals and to strengthen oversight and accountability.

The recession has created a paradox for advice services. The tougher financial climate increases workload pressures at a time when additional funding is harder to secure. The DSD has recognised the need to sustain funding for advice services, although additional resources are needed. We must demonstrate even more tangibly value, quality, productivity and outcomes. We think the Annual Report demonstrates our worth.

We thank the staff and management committee for the endeavour and commitment which are captured in this Annual Report.

Employment

Protecting people's rights in a recession

As the recession continues to bite, many more people contacted the Law Centre’s employment law advice line. Our two employment advisers saw a particular increase in the need for advice on redundancy, short time working and pay cuts. They answered 575 advice calls on contract terms and 581 calls on dismissal, both up significantly on last year.

Redundancy lay-off

Faced with financial pressures, some employers fail to act lawfully towards their employees when implementing redundancies. We settled an industrial tribunal case for £4,000 after we advised a client on the legal issues arising out of his redundancy. There had been no consultation by his employer. We also acted for two employees who were made redundant without notice and who received no redundancy payment or pay in lieu of notice. The employer was in financial difficulties so we negotiated for the settlement to be made in staged payments.

We continued to focus on building capacity for others to be able to advise effectively during this difficult time for workers. Forty nine people attended our three introductory courses on employment law this year. Responding to need, we developed a new course on redundancy, lay off and employer insolvency.

Flexible working

We responded to the DEL consultation on extending the right to request flexible working. The right currently only applies to carers or to parents of young children. We argued that this right should be extended. This would help create a more supportive and sustainable working environment for all employees. We also argued that the existing right needs to be strengthened by making it easier to enforce.

Dispute resolution shake up

This year, the Department for Employment and Learning launched a major consultation on how the system for dealing with workplace disputes should be reformed in Northern Ireland. We gave evidence on the need for reform to the DEL Assembly Committee and jointly hosted, with DEL, a seminar on the proposals for members of the advice sector.

Our response to DEL suggested a new framework based on existing structures and resources but able to deliver more accessible, affordable and speedy resolution of many disputes. Better access to personalised advice about employment rights and fair and transparent grievance and dismissal procedures are central to our proposals.

The Law Centre will continue to lobby for a fairer, more affordable system for resolving workplace disputes.

We offered three introductory courses on employment law this year. Responding to need, we developed a new course on redundancy, lay off and employer insolvency.

Social Security

Challenging poverty: access to benefits

Making sure that people who are struggling financially receive all the help they are entitled to is a priority for the Law Centre’s social security advisers.

Tax credit errors

A problem negotiating the HMRC complaints system led to a recently widowed mother and her two school age children being left to survive on a monthly income of around £400. Her notification of her husband’s death had led HMRC to suspend her tax credits, leaving her without income and no access to help with funeral payments or school meals for the children. The suspension arose because HMRC had not properly terminated the couple’s joint claim for tax credits when the husband died. Contact with HMRC solicitors setting out our intention to seek judicial review led to payment of arrears and compensation.

In January, we delivered a new training course on tax credits to equip advisers to deal with the complexities of the system.

Complex benefit system

In an appeal to the Social Security Commissioner, we set a useful precedent for low income disabled people who have to negotiate their way through the complex benefits system. The appeal concerned the date a person awarded the care component of Disability Living Allowance at the middle rate should be entitled to an increase in her/his Income Support through the inclusion of a severe disability premium. Our client had not realised that she should have informed the Income Support office of the DLA award straightaway. The Commissioner confirmed that, in these situations, the extra Income Support should still be backdated to the date the person became entitled to DLA.

Child poverty and welfare reform

We have focused this year on the impact of proposals for widespread welfare reform on poverty, and on child poverty in particular.

We gave evidence to the Social Development Assembly Committee on our concerns about the government’s Welfare Reform Bill. We highlighted the likely impact of plans to abolish Income Support, to move more lone parents onto Jobseeker’s Allowance, to tighten contribution conditions for Employment and Support Allowance and JSA and to tie the benefit entitlement of certain people with drug addiction to agreeing to drug treatment.

We challenged proposals to introduce ‘work for your benefit’ as a form of workfare. Increased sanctions are proposed for those who fail to attend social security interviews or are abusive to staff and, in certain cases, for lone parents who fail to take up an offer of employment. We pointed to evidence that sanctions do not work and increase poverty.

The proposals to place increased responsibilities on lone parents have already been significantly modified in Northern Ireland. There are signs that the Welfare Reform legislation will be adapted to take into account local circumstances.

As a member of the Child Poverty Alliance, we analysed the impact of the forthcoming Child Poverty Bill. We wrote to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister Committee, welcoming the Bill and setting out our proposals for how it should be introduced in Northern Ireland. We followed this up with evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the human rights implications.

In March, the Law Centre and Housing Rights Service jointly gave evidence to the Department for Social Development Committee on the adverse impact on large families of the proposals to cap Housing Benefit to those living in larger properties. We were successful in persuading the Committee to endorse our argument and, in April, the Department announced that it would not introduce the proposals in Northern Ireland. We also argued that plans to reform local housing allowance should not be taken forward in Northern Ireland and were pleased when the Social Security Advisory Committee agreed.

Destitution

We worked on tackling the sometimes devastating consequences when migrant workers lose their jobs. While developing legal arguments about the restriction on access to benefits in some cases being unlawful, we made legal submissions to social services trusts about their duties to assist those facing destitution.

We ran a new training course, in Belfast and Derry, for the advice sector on social services duties to people from abroad. We spoke at a conference organized by health and social care trusts on gaps in migrant worker provision.

We contributed to the Human Rights Commission’s investigation into homelessness for people with no or limited access to public funds through facilitating interviews with staff and clients.

People from countries that joined the European Union in 2004 (A8 nationals) are required to register their work under the Workers Registration Scheme. Failure to do so may result in a loss of entitlement to benefit if the worker loses her/his job. In such cases, there is little that the advice sector or statutory agencies can do to help.

One of our recent advice calls concerned a Latvian national who lost his job and was not entitled to benefits because his employer had not sent off his registration form. He was homeless and social services paid for his accommodation for seven weeks but were going to stop and contacted us to check what he was entitled to. We were un-able to offer any solution beyond suggesting that he consider becoming self-employed and referring him back to his local advice centre for help with self-employment forms.

Informed by our clients’ experience, we submitted evidence to the government’s Migration Advisory Committee in opposition to plans to extend the operation of the Workers Registration Scheme for a further two years. We pointed out that this failed to consider the humanitarian impact and ignored research that establishes the strong contribution of migrant workers to the economy.

Roma people

The experience of the Roma community in Belfast this year brought into sharp relief the lack of safety nets for migrant workers who do not qualify for social welfare support. We made proposals recommending an emergency assistance fund, administered by the community and voluntary sector, from which voluntary groups could draw funds to support vulnerable migrants and their families. We also suggested an audit of gaps in existing legislation. We presented our proposals to the DEL Migrant Workers Sub-Group in June, just before events unfolded with the Roma community. We set out our proposals again at a Belfast City Council debriefing meeting in August on the ‘Roma incident’. We continue to lobby on this.

One of the key lessons that emerged from the Roma incident is the importance of information about entitlement to support and assistance. We were pleased therefore to publish My Rights, an on line guide for Romanian and Bulgarian students and self-employed people. We also completed the Your Rights in Northern Ireland series - produced with the Human Rights Commission and OFMDFM - with a guide for A2 workers translated into Bulgarian and Romanian. We are working with government departments and voluntary agencies to ensure that the guides are widely publicised to the people who most need them.

Immigration

Safeguarding immigrants' rights

The Law Centre’s immigration advisers addressed 2,500 legal issues this year, ranging from asylum and detention to the immigration status of families and unaccompanied children.

In recognition of the needs left unmet, we worked in partnership with the Refugee Action Group to help set up and host its out of hours detention phoneline. The volunteer run phone line puts people in touch with family members and with legal advisers as soon as possible if they are detained under Operation Gull, which often operates at weekends.

Borders Citizenship and Immigration Act

Major developments have taken place in immigration law and practice. The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill introduced early in the year proposed, among other things, to tighten border controls between the UK and Ireland, thereby undermining the long-established principle of free movement within the Common Travel Area. We brought together immigration practitioners and policy analysts in a North South Immigration Forum to analyse the plans. We lobbied hard in Westminster and drafted amendments for use in the House of Lords. The Lords opposed the proposal and the government dropped it when the Bill returned to the Commons. It remains clear, however, that it may be reintroduced at a later date.

We also lobbied the Commons and the Lords on other features of the Bill. With South Tyrone Empowerment Project and UNISON, we jointly drafted a briefing paper for local MPs, endorsed by a range of organisations. Once the law was enacted, we organised a second North South meeting to consider how human rights standards should inform immigration policy. Co-hosted with Free Legal Advice Centres in Dublin, the forum explored the human rights implications of changes to law and practice on both sides of the border.

Detention

Challenging immigration detention continues to be a priority. There has been significant change in administrative practice with the opening of the new UKBA offices in Belfast.

We have recently been successful in several bail hearings, one of which involved securing bail for a European national who had served his prison sentence but was being held in indefinite administrative detention by the immigration authorities. To avoid a breach of his right to liberty, we relied on new UK Border Agency guidance which allows a prisoner to be released before the Probation Service provides an address. We then successfully appealed against a decision to deport him.

Identifying that these cases are becoming more common, we delivered a well attended training course on Foreign National Prisoners.

We gave media comment on the difficulties faced by people who are subject to immigration detention, highlighting the importance of legal representation.

We met formally with UKBA on two occasions to keep this and other issues relating to immigrants’ rights under review.

Domestic violence

We published a joint briefing with Women’s Aid on the impact of immigration rules on victims of domestic violence. The law as it stands makes it difficult for immigrant women to leave an abusive relationship if they are unable to rely on public assistance. We urged the Assembly and the Northern Ireland Office to review the situation.

Children

We met with DHSSPS to raise problems faced by children who are subject to immigration control. We hosted a children’s sector meeting to explore options for establishing an Immigration Children’s Panel in Northern Ireland.

Immigration and marriage

Alongside domestic litigation by the AIRE Centre and JCWI, the Law Centre initiated an application to the European Court of Human Rights challenging the requirement of a fee from immigrants who need permission to marry in the UK under the Certificate of Approval Scheme. This contributed to the government’s decision to abolish the blanket fee and make provisions for refunds in 2009.

Community Care & Mental health

Championing care needs

This has been a significant year for law and policy in both mental health and community care, and the Law Centre has been very active in working for rights based progress.

This year, a number of our cases have involved family members being offered residential care places at significant distance from their family home. We have worked with member agencies on this difficulty and took on cases when necessary. For example, after we raised the issue of one client’s right to respect for family life, the Southern Trust found a placement nearer his home.

Over 100 health and social services trust staff attended our legal training on direct payments, mental incapacity, respite care and good decision making. Our outreach work included training for South West Carers Forum and Gateway team, and a workshop at Carers NI conference on respite care.

Our community care briefings included a legal update on duties to review the needs of people in long term care and an analysis of the new law which requires private sector care homes to comply with the Human Rights Act. These briefings have been distributed widely to health and social care trusts and the advice sector.

Drawing on our advice and casework, we briefed the trusts and the Department on the complex issues surrounding top-up fees in care homes and set out areas where a fresh policy approach is needed. We are publishing a briefing setting out an agenda for reform of respite services for young people, people with an acquired brain injury and others.

The needs and rights of older people have featured large in our work this year. The Rights in Community Care Group, which the Law Centre convenes, commissioned research on current and future need for personal care in Northern Ireland and on options for funding long term care. Completed in the autumn, it forms the basis for a renewed lobbying campaign by the group.

Clients’ experiences have informed our views on the proposals for an Older People’s Commissioner for Northern Ireland. We have worked with the age sector on the campaign for a commissioner with strong casework and investigative powers. We met with the OFMDFM team preparing new legislation to establish the commissioner’s office and argued that robust powers are needed to protect the rights of older people.

We continued work with Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action’s Older People’s Advisory Forum and contributed our experience to the OFMDFM advisory panel on older people. We outlined the legal issues surrounding the discharge of older people from hospital at a conference organized by the Northern Ireland Forum for Ethics in Medicine and Healthcare.

Our mental health legal advisers run monthly clinics in Mater Hospital, Windsor House, Knockbracken and Gransha Hospital.

We represented a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia and dementia at a mental health review tribunal which resulted in her discharge from a compulsory detention order. The tribunal accepted that the trust had not satisfied the legal criteria for detention in the psychiatric hospital. She is now living in a residential care home in Belfast. As a result of discharge meetings, the trust agreed to make arrangements for her to be taken out for visits to the library and shopping. The mental health legal advice in-hospital clinic uncovered this case, which may otherwise have been overlooked as the woman’s relatives live abroad.

Our mental health casework has exposed some basic failures in the safeguards against arbitrary detention. In two cases this year, the tribunals clearly applied the wrong burden of proof, looking to the person detained to prove that s/he was not lawfully detained rather than placing the onus on the detaining authority to justify its decision. The placing of the burden of proof on the detaining authority had been introduced in order to ensure compliance with the Human Rights Act. At the application for leave for judicial review stage in the High Court, the tribunals conceded that they had acted unlawfully.

We co-hosted a major conference on consent, capacity and human rights with the Dementia Services Development Centre. Some of these themes were picked up again by leading experts from England, Scotland and Wales at a Law Centre seminar on the DHSSPS consultation on new capacity and mental health law in Northern Ireland. The seminar’s key recommendation was that there should be a single mental capacity and mental health bill.

We worked hard this year to develop the Mental Health and Learning Disability Alliance. The Alliance has gone from strength to strength in its work on law reform. It gave evidence to the Health Committee on the implementation of the Bamford Review and held meetings with local political parties on the reform of mental health and capacity law. Its response to the Department’s proposals was critical of the plans to introduce two separate pieces of legislation.

The Alliance comprises Law Centre (NI), Disability Action, Mencap, Aware, Action Mental Health, Children’s Law Centre, British Association of Social Workers, Participation and Practice of Rights, Royal College of Psychiatrists, College of Occupational Therapists, British Medical Association, Equality Commission NI, Bryson House, Alzheimer’s Society, MindWise, Federation of Experts by Experience and CAUSE.

We were delighted when the Department reconsidered its original plans and announced in September that it would go forward with one Bill.

We are also working closely with the Department on the detail of the law reform proposals as part of its Steering Group. We are hosting the meetings of the Department’s Reference Group on law reform.

We briefed the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission on the human rights implications of the proposed law.

We organised a series of seminars to explore some of the key policy issues in reform of mental health and capacity law reform. The seminars bring together the Department, voluntary organisations and user and carer groups with leading analysts.