- Conference
- 2024 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference, access to justice through legal aid was already significantly restricted following the major changes to legal aid in 2012. However, shockingly a recent report by the Women’s Budget group has found that women have been disproportionally affected by these changes, leaving them without essential support to fight discrimination, violence, and housing insecurity.
Conference, Dr Sara Reis, the head of policy and research and deputy director of the Women’s Budget Group, said: “The report reveals a troubling reality: the legal aid changes introduced in 2012 have cut a critical lifeline for vulnerable women including survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and asylum-seeking women, leaving them without essential legal support in the face of discrimination, violence and housing insecurity.”
Conference, the report, funded by the Community Justice Fund, identified the following significant barriers for women attempting to access legal aid:
• Ineligibility, for example some employment discrimination not being included in legal aid.
• Inaccessibility due to insufficient legal aid providers.
• Lack of awareness and signposting of what qualifies for legal aid
Conference, UNISON provide exemplary legal services to our members on a range of areas, including employment issues, however, we need to lobby for improvements to legal aid so that our members can access support in other areas that is not covered by union membership, when needed.
Conference, we ask the National Women’s Committee to:
1: Work with the NEC and all appropriate sections of the unions and our partners, including Labour Link to lobby for improvement to the law to ensure women are not disproportionately affected by legal aid.
2: Report back on progress to National Women’s Conference 2025.