Social Welfare and Immigration Legal Aid: Mapping need, provision and accessibility
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Law, Politics and Sociology
Abstract
Legal advice is vital to accessing asylum or immigration status and many social and welfare rights such as housing, welfare benefits, and community care. Yet access to legal advice has been affected by legal aid changes and local authority funding decisions (Organ and Sigafoos, 2017. As a result, some regions in the UK are 'advice deserts', where no free legal advice is available. However, my earlier work also described 'advice droughts', where services appear to exist but are inaccessible in practice because there are barriers to organisations doing the work or to clients using them. My work has shown that, in immigration law in England and Wales (E&W), cuts to funding cause conflict between quality of services, financial viability for providers, and access for clients. It is unclear whether the same applies for all categories of law and in all three legal aid models in the UK.
This project examines access to legal advice across the UK, focussing on what the research characterises as the Social Welfare and Immigration Legal Aid (SWILA) sector. The research (acronym SWILAMap) extends my research from E&W to the four nations/three systems of the UK, focusing on housing, welfare benefits, community care and immigration work, which constitute a manageable, but reasonably representative, sample of the core SWILA work. SWILAMap takes a multi-layered geographical approach, examining the issues at cross-national, national and local levels. SWILAMap undertakes the first comparison of how the three different systems for legal aid delivery, in Scotland, Northern Ireland (NI), and England and Wales (E&W), affect organisations' ability to undertake the work, across the branches of the legal profession. It investigates the uneven geographies of legal need, legal advice provision, and accessibility of that provision to users.
The Access to Justice Foundation (ATJF) is a non-academic partner. As a UK-wide charity funding access to justice and advice delivery projects, ATJF has a unique body of data on legal advice need, provision and local referral networks in its funding applications and grant reports. ATJF is keen to have this evidence used for research and to participate in the steering group and policy seminars.
SWILAMap has three key sub-projects: 1) applying the Descriptive Mapping methodology, which I devised, to better understand regional and sub-regional variation in demand and supply in each category of SWILA, from both provider and user perspectives; 2) identifying local, national and cross-national barriers to provision and quality within the UK legal aid systems across different legal fields; and 3) using a Knowledge Exchange approach, with practitioners and policy-makers, to identify and overcome barriers to SWILA provision. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, and analysis of the ATJF application and grant report datasets, supported with Freedom of Information requests, ensuring thorough coverage of each of the areas of law and jurisdictions. I will collect the provider-side data and a Research Assistant (RA) will interview advice users. This will produce a unique qualitative dataset which will be thematically analysed drawing on concepts from socio-legal studies, social policy, geography and economics.
SWILAMap is timely, as Wales moves towards a devolved justice system and Scotland reviews its legal aid system, thirteen years after E&W adopted marketisation and following a decade of hostile environment policies for immigration, public sector austerity and increased welfare conditionality. Accelerating movements towards remote justice, including remote delivery of legal aid services, may reduce geographical limitations but may also be unsuitable in many SWILA cases; the pandemic offers new evidence on this. The research is supported by an inter-disciplinary academic advisory group and steering group drawn from across the UK, which will ensure academic and policy relevance.
This project examines access to legal advice across the UK, focussing on what the research characterises as the Social Welfare and Immigration Legal Aid (SWILA) sector. The research (acronym SWILAMap) extends my research from E&W to the four nations/three systems of the UK, focusing on housing, welfare benefits, community care and immigration work, which constitute a manageable, but reasonably representative, sample of the core SWILA work. SWILAMap takes a multi-layered geographical approach, examining the issues at cross-national, national and local levels. SWILAMap undertakes the first comparison of how the three different systems for legal aid delivery, in Scotland, Northern Ireland (NI), and England and Wales (E&W), affect organisations' ability to undertake the work, across the branches of the legal profession. It investigates the uneven geographies of legal need, legal advice provision, and accessibility of that provision to users.
The Access to Justice Foundation (ATJF) is a non-academic partner. As a UK-wide charity funding access to justice and advice delivery projects, ATJF has a unique body of data on legal advice need, provision and local referral networks in its funding applications and grant reports. ATJF is keen to have this evidence used for research and to participate in the steering group and policy seminars.
SWILAMap has three key sub-projects: 1) applying the Descriptive Mapping methodology, which I devised, to better understand regional and sub-regional variation in demand and supply in each category of SWILA, from both provider and user perspectives; 2) identifying local, national and cross-national barriers to provision and quality within the UK legal aid systems across different legal fields; and 3) using a Knowledge Exchange approach, with practitioners and policy-makers, to identify and overcome barriers to SWILA provision. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, and analysis of the ATJF application and grant report datasets, supported with Freedom of Information requests, ensuring thorough coverage of each of the areas of law and jurisdictions. I will collect the provider-side data and a Research Assistant (RA) will interview advice users. This will produce a unique qualitative dataset which will be thematically analysed drawing on concepts from socio-legal studies, social policy, geography and economics.
SWILAMap is timely, as Wales moves towards a devolved justice system and Scotland reviews its legal aid system, thirteen years after E&W adopted marketisation and following a decade of hostile environment policies for immigration, public sector austerity and increased welfare conditionality. Accelerating movements towards remote justice, including remote delivery of legal aid services, may reduce geographical limitations but may also be unsuitable in many SWILA cases; the pandemic offers new evidence on this. The research is supported by an inter-disciplinary academic advisory group and steering group drawn from across the UK, which will ensure academic and policy relevance.
People |
ORCID iD |
Jo Wilding (Principal Investigator) |
Publications

Wilding J
(2022)
Beyond Advice Deserts: Strategic Ignorance and the Lack of Access to Asylum Legal Advice
in Amicus Curiae

Wilding J
(2023)
Ten Years of LASPO: immigration legal aid now and the cost-shifting effects of austerity cuts
in Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law
Description | Justice and Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into Family Migration, September 2022. |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | National Audit Office review |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
URL | https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/governments-management-of-legal-aid/ |
Description | Response to Public Accounts Committee |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | Review of Civil Legal Aid (RoCLA) |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | Towards a Migrant Integration Framework for Brighton and Hove |
Organisation | Brighton & Hove City Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I lead a team working with the council to produce a report on 'where we are now' on four strands: health, housing, education, and access to legal advice. I convene the access to legal advice strand and supervise the post-doctoral research assistant who will carry out the research. I obtained internal knowledge exchange funding for this project, which has the direct involvement of the council leader, the chair of the council's Equalities, Community Safety and Human Rights Committee, and the council officials responsible for the corresponding department. |
Collaborator Contribution | Attendance at group meetings, provision of information and contacts, meeting venues, interviews as required, professional and elected member time. |
Impact | The report is expected in July 2024, with smaller outputs in the form of knowledge exchange arising between March and July. |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Article in Legal Action magazine |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 'A 'no-brainer': fund immigration legal advice and save costs elsewhere', in Legal Action magazine, about the 'It's a No Brainer' report. 25 May 2023. This is a print and online magazine available to subscribers only, but extended the reach of my research on local authority funding of advice, undertaken within this award, to a wider audience of professional practitioners, helping to expand the conversation on local authorities' role in providing access to legal advice, and most importantly to illustrate the cost-shifting effects of legal aid cuts.. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lag.org.uk/article/214157/a-no-brainer-fund-immigration-legal-advice-and-save-costs-else... |
Description | Blog article on social welfare legal aid data |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'Serious decline in legal aid provision reveals extent of post-LASPO crisis,' in The Justice Gap, June 2023. This post analysed and shared the Freedom of Information response on social welfare legal aid work (beyond immigration)being undertaken in every part of England and Wales, to ensure the data and analysis were publicly available at the earliest opportunity, particularly given the ongoing Review of Civil Legal Aid and NAO review. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.thejusticegap.com/serious-decline-in-legal-aid-provision-reveals-extent-of-post-laspo-cr... |
Description | Blog post |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'New freedom of information data indicates half of asylum applicants are unable to access legal aid representation', Refugee Law Initiative, November 2022. This explained the most recent freedom of information data, which I felt should be made available as soon as possible as it showed a large deficit in the availability of legal advice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2022/11/04/new-freedom-of-information-data-indicates-half-of-asylum-appl... |
Description | Blog post |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'The Home Office is sabotaging its own plan to tackle the asylum backlog', in The Conversation, 1 March 2023, on the lack of legal aid provision available in reality for those in the 'streamlined asylum procedure' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://theconversation.com/the-home-office-is-sabotaging-its-own-plan-to-tackle-the-asylum-backlog-... |
Description | Blog post |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'The legal aid sector is collapsing and millions more may soon be without access to justice: New data', in The Conversation, 7 June 2023. This demonstrates the loss of provision in the legal aid sector, despite the amended legal aid means test apparently giving more people access. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://theconversation.com/the-legal-aid-sector-is-collapsing-and-millions-more-may-soon-be-without... |
Description | Blog post - Free Movement |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 'Over half the people seeking asylum are now unable to access a legal aid lawyer' in Free Movement, 23 October 2023, again to make the latest deficit data publicly available as soon as possible and allow people to pressure policy-makers. This latest data was particularly important for other organisations' planning of.a judicial review application against the Ministry of Justice for its failure to fulfil the statutory duty to make legal aid available. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://freemovement.org.uk/over-half-the-people-seeking-asylum-are-now-unable-to-access-a-legal-aid... |
Description | Guest editorial |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 'Guest editorial: Time to fight for the enforcement of the LASPO s1 duty', in Legal Action magazine, 22 February 2024. This guest editorial explains the recent judicial review in criminal law which develops the legal test for breach of the duty to secure availability of legal aid. It explains how practitioners in other areas of law could document the deficit between demand and provision to establish a breach of the statutory duty. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.lag.org.uk/article/215181/guest-editorial-time-to-fight-for-the-enforcement-of-the-laspo... |
Description | Participation in panel discussion - Parliament |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Panel discussion event in Parliament to mark ten years of the LASPO Act (making severe cuts to legal aid), in March 2023. The event was attended by MPs including Emily Thornberry (Shadow Attorney General) and Andy Slaughter, who sits on the Justice Committee. As a consequence, I had private meetings (at their invitation) with 1) Emily Thornberry MP, the Shadow Attorney General, who asked for a meeting with me to discuss access to justice, together with her Parliamentary researcher, in April 2023; and 2) Dame Diana Johnson MP, who chairs the Home Affairs Committee, after being recommended to her by advice organisations in her constituency, in July 2023. I was also commissioned in December 2023 to write a 'policy options menu' on legal aid for Shabana Mahmood MP (Shadow Justice Secretary) by This Day Foundation, on behalf of the largest donor to the Labour party (December 2023). This was sent to Ms Mahmood and her team in January 2024 and I also presented it at a launch event online and to the Legal Aid Organising Group of sector stakeholders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |