Tackling poverty

A focus on tackling poverty

Our clients are those who are most disadvantaged and socially excluded. They experience multiple and interlinked problems but the most prevalent issue defining their lives is poverty and this has significantly worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living emergency.  People risk increasing homelessness, family breakdown and a deterioration in physical and mental health over the coming months as a result of the extreme financial pressures caused by the cost-of-living crisis. Already, many are experiencing untold hardship and the law centre anticipates an increase in demand for its services. 

Welfare reform, first introduced in 2010, has left many people much worse off and we continue to see the impacts of the changes when supporting those experiencing hardship. The complexity of the benefits system and the structures for managing it means that there are few people within the system who are expert in all aspects of it; so it is common for claimants to be disadvantaged by lack of knowledge amongst those they deal with. During the pandemic there has been a repeated failure to progress benefit-related medical assessments for claimants and a positive outcome from these is often key to gaining an increase in income and being able to better manage financial pressures. 

The law centre’s welfare benefits team represents at appeals up to the highest tribunal - The Upper Tribunal - and in Coventry, the law centre is the only advice agency in Coventry that provides face-to-face representation for clients. We have a success rate of over 80% (well in excess of national averages).    

Increasingly, our clients do not have the resources to meet their needs. Their lives are constrained and they have very restricted choices, and their physical health and wellbeing is likely to be compromised by lack of funds for food and heating. 

Through our legal casework we can make a direct impact on poverty by: