South West London Law Centres put forward a request to exempt charities from the next hike
A planned increase in employers' national insurance contributions in the UK is expected to cost a London-based group of law centres approximately £33,000, reported the Law Society Gazette.
In last month’s budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that employers’ national insurance contributions would be increased by 1.2 percentage points to 15% effective 6 April. According to South West London Law Centres chief of trustees Allan Blake, this means the group will have to come up with around £33,569.
Speaking at the SWLLC’s 50th anniversary celebration, Blake requested for charities to be exempted from the following year’s tax hike, pointing out in a statement published by the Gazette that while its 40 staff and pro bono lawyer network assisted thousands of people who needed legal aid, “we know so many we cannot reach within the confines of our existing funding.”
Over 2022-2023, SWLLC assisted almost 7,000. Eight hundred and ninety-nine individuals who were facing eviction received on-the-day emergency court representation; one case saw an SWLLC duty solicitor aid in preventing the eviction of a mother when the solicitor found that her housing benefit had been unjustly terminated, driving her into rent arrears. The law centre’s intervention resulted in her rent account being cleared, the council agreeing to pay £2,400 in inconvenience and distress damages, complete property repairs, and tenancy restoration.
Blake explained that just a third of the SWLLC’s income is derived from legal aid; law firms, grant-funding bodies and individual donations shoulder the rest. Almost 400 are part of SWLLC’s Volunteer Lawyers Programme, which offers pro bono services valued at an estimated £1.4 million.
“It’s tough and it’s getting tougher. If you could exempt charities that would be wonderful,” Blake said.
SWLLC has offices in Croydon, Wandsworth, Merton, and Sutton. House of Commons justice select committee chair Labour MP Andy Slaughter was in attendance at the 50th anniversary celebration event.
