This question came up last week when I was going through the bank statement of a new client whom I proposed to advise and assist under the Legal Help Scheme. She was receiving Income Support and entitled to be treated as receiving a passported benefit for Legal Aid purposes.

What worried me when going through the bank statement was that whilst there was clear evidence of payment in of Income Support there were other payments in such as child support and some other payments. I was not sure how high the level of this additional income would have to be before somebody at the Legal Aid Agency might refuse payment for the work on this case because I was said to have failed to adequately consider whether the client was property in receipt of Income Support.

I found an explanation what properly in receipt of a passported benefit means at paragraph 4 on page 12 of the Legal Aid Agency’s Means Assessment Guidance. This states:-

The passporting benefit must be currently in payment (e.g. the individual will not be passported if the benefit claim is still being processed or if payments are suspended pending a fraud investigation) and the individual must be legally entitled to the payment. If the passporting benefit is in payment but there is a suspicion that an individual may not be “properly” in receipt—e.g. representations have been made against the individual’s means or the individual’s own declarations have indicated that relevant facts such as a partner, employment, sources of income and capital etc. have not been advised to the benefit office—their legal aid claim will not be passported.

The answer would therefore appear to be whether the information provided by the client gives rise to a suspicion that they are not entitled to the passported benefit which they are receiving. Following the withdrawal of Legal Aid for Welfare Benefits work the Legal Aid Agency can not expect most of us to have a specialist eye for possible non entitlement. I think therefore that as long was we can record that we have no suspicion that the information provided by the client means that they are not entitled to the passported benefit which they are receiving we should not be at risk of not getting paid.

I think that the danger signs when looking at the bank statements or other information provided by the client will be situations such as:-

• The client’s net income for the month up to the date when they sign the Legal Help is more than the net income limit for non passported benefits  – ie £733.00.
• The client’s wages are more than the Universal Credit Work Allowances.

This is not meant to be definitive advice on this question. I would welcome any comments on here or by email to wflack63@gmail.com If anyone would like to correct what I have said or add to it.

I have had a list of solicitors which I give to people whose cases I can’t take for a while. I have now put it on the site .  You can access it via the link at the top of the page.

I hope to add to the list so please let me know the contact details of anyone you think should be added. I can amend the list to include organisations outside London if I get the details.

At the bottom of the page is a link to the list as a Google Document which you should be able to print or copy. Please let me know if you can’t.

Here is a very valuable document for anyone who like me regularly issues homelessness appeals in the Central London County Court pursuant to Section 204 of the Housing Act 1996.

For years I have had to worry about ensuring that hard copies of the Court papers were received at the Court within 21 days of the date when the Section 202 Review decision letter was received. That now appears to be a thing of the past. Here is the letter as a PDF.

I am extremely grateful to Mrs Begum at the Court for providing a very detailed response to my queries about whether Appellant Notices and supporting documents can be sent to the Court by email as PDFs or whether it is still necessary for hard copies to be sent to the Court. As can be seen from her letter of 15 January, the answer is that they can as long as you have a PBA Account with HM Courts & Tribunal Service for paying the fee.

So far there has only been limited guidance available from the Courts as to what can and can’t be issued digitally. Please leave a comment if you are aware of any other guidance. All I had been able to find was the Courts Email Guidance. The attached letter was sent after I had to complain after Central London County Court initially accepted and then sent back an Appeal which I had issued by sending papers by email only. I had been sending Application Notice in this way and having them issued without problems.. My complaint led to the Court agreeing to issue my appeal. As part of the complaint I asked for clarification of the Court’s approach.

When I wrote to the Court I referred them to the  Bryan McGuire QC memorial lecture on homelessness given by HHJ Jan Luba QC in April 2017 (Link here) which set out at paragraph 111 a number of very useful Pointers For Appellants. These included a request to cut down on paper work and help save the rain forests. I asked for guidance on those like me who act for appellants might take up the call. I have had a further response from HHJ Luba QC in which he reminds me that Ms Begum as a court official should not be treated as stating what the actual Court procedure is but only as setting her understanding of it. He also suggested that at some point in the future the Courts will be accepting Appeal Bundles in digital format. I think that they should have started doing this some years ago but I am very glad that they are at least allowing us to issue by email.

Since receiving the above letter I have set another appeal to Central London County Court for issue without sending any paper copies. I sent an email to the address: enquiries@centrallondon.countycourt.gsi.gov.uk  which set out the following text:

Part 3 of The Immigration Act 2014 is likely to come into force nationally shortly following a 6 month pilot in the West Midlands.  I won’t go into detail about the Act here. Further information can be obtained from blog posts by  Nearly Legal – Tessa Shepperson – Trisan Hyatt at Invictus Chambers  and from the You.Gov website. In a nutshell, the Act provides that landlords who rent properties to tenants who do not have leave to enter or remain in the UK will be liable to be fined. This is designed to stop private landlords from renting properties to anyone who cannot show that are entitled to be in the UK.

As with previous initiatives to make like difficult for migrants this Act is likely to add to the existing burden on local authority Social Services Departments in providing assistance to those poorest members of society who are excluded from mainstream benefits and services.  It will once again fall to Social Services staff to prevent people who have children with them or have special needs from becoming street homeless. This is because Schedule 3 of the Act excludes certain tenancy agreements from those which cannot be let to persons without leave to enter remain. These include accommodation provided by local authorities.

Paragraph 7(1) excludes from the reach of the Act any agreement—

(a)under which accommodation is provided to a person as a result of a duty or relevant power that is imposed or conferred on a local authority by an enactment (whether or not provided by the local authority), and
(b) which is not excluded by another provision of this Schedule.
(2) “Relevant power” means a power that is exercised for, or in connection with, a purpose of providing accommodation to a person who is homeless or is threatened with homelessness
(3) In sub-paragraph (2) the reference to a person who is homeless or is threatened with homelessness is to be read in accordance with—
(a) in relation to England and Wales, section 175 of the Housing Act 1996;
(b) in relation to Scotland, section 24 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987;
(c) in relation to Northern Ireland, Article 3 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 (S.I. 1988/1990 (N.I. 23)).

This is going to mean that overstayers or other persons who are not able to obtain private sector accommodation directly from private landlords or letting agencies and are facing street homeless are going to have to apply to Social Services for assistance. This is of course already happening where the persons not have enough money to obtain or keep a private tenancy. To these persons there will now be added those who would have been able to afford to pay for private accommodation but cannot find a landlord who is willing to take them on because of the new Act.

I say that it will be Social Services who have to do the work because staff in Housing Departments are generally able to refuse to provide any assistance where the applicant is not “eligible” for housing  due their immigration status pursuant to  Section 185 of the Housing Act 1996.   Unlike their colleagues in the Housing Department, the staff in the Social Services Department must assist these applicants even if they are excluded from receiving assistance under Schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 where a breach of their human rights would arise if assistance was withheld. Those who might have been housed under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 because they have children living them will be seeking accommodation by way of assistance under Children Act 1989 and those who would have been housed due to medical conditions rendering them vulnerable would be asking for accommodation under the Care Act 2014.

Social Services Departments in many London Boroughs have already had to set up No Recourse To Public Funds teams to deal with persons facing destitution because their immigration status prevents them from receiving mainstream housing and benefits. They have to try and find housing for those applicants whom they are not able to turn away in the same way that the Housing Department can.  This already places a considerable strain on staff who only have limited resources and are unlikely to have very much housing training. Although it is common for Social Services Departments or Legal Departments to write to me saying that Social Services are not  “quasi letting agency” the Immigration Act 2014 takes them another step along the way to becoming just that.

Social Services Department staff will soon face further demands for assistance from people whose only needs are housing related in that they cannot obtain private sector tenancies or social housing. Staff will have to find landlords for these persons and arrange for a tenancy to be granted for them in a way that brings it within Paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 of the new Act.  If they are able to do so they will be acting as a filter which negates the effect of the Immigration Act 2014 by bringing the new tenancy agreement within the class of excluded agreements set out in Schedule 3 and allowing the landlord to grant a tenancy to the person because it is now provided as a consequence of a duty or power imposed or conferred upon a local authority. Alternatively, if a private landlord cannot be found they are going to have to house the applicants themselves.

A practical step for Social Services  staff might be to provide homeless persons without leave to remain who can find landlords with a letter indicating that the council will be able to assist in endorsing a request for the tenancy if necessary if the landlord were minded to grant it but for the risk of a fine under the Immigration Act 2014. Having said that it is likely that by breaking cover and having to reveal their immigration status in order to avoid homelessness an overstayer would become known to the authorities and have to stop working pending the outcome of an application for leave to remain in the UK. This is likely to cut off their income and stop them from being able to afford to pay for private accommodation themselves. As such they will be added to the large group of people facing destitution without assistance and funding from Social Services.