Vulnerable families and individuals in Liverpool City Region are suffering from an ‘increasing failure’ by statutory bodies and agencies to meet their legal obligations on matters of housing, welfare benefits and asylum support, a law centre chief says in a hard-hitting new report.

The warning comes from Ngaryan Li, chief executive and senior solicitor at the Vauxhall Community Law & Information Centre, in the organisation’s first-ever Impact Report. She adds that these failings are the result of ‘delays, poor decision-making and under-resourcing that ‘place individuals at significant risk of harm.’

The report was launched at the centre’s HQ on Blenheim Street at an event sponsored by Broudie Jackson Canter.

The centre, founded in 1973, tackles injustice, inequality and disadvantage in the community by challenging authorities through legal action and advocacy to ‘push back against systems’ that ‘fail or exploit’ people, amplifying their voices and ensuring that their rights are upheld and respected.

Its Impact Report covers the year to March 31 and shows that the centre secured financial gains of £4.56m for the clients it helped. A total of 2,413 cases and inquiries were opened or dealt with. Of those, more than half were to do with welfare matters, 43.8 per cent were related to housing and 5.1 per cent to debt.

Vauxhall Law Centre operates across six outreach locations in some of the city region’s most deprived wards. In the report, Ngaryan says: 

“Over the past year, one of the most significant and persistent systemic issues we have observed in our casework across the Liverpool City Region is the increasing failure of statutory systems to meet their legal obligations to vulnerable individuals and families, particularly in housing, welfare benefits and asylum support. 

“They reflect a pattern of under-resourcing, poor decision-making and delays that place individuals at significant risk of harm.

“Housing remains a critical concern. In Merseyside, we are consistently seeing clients placed in unsuitable or unsafe temporary accommodation – often for extended periods – due to the severe shortage of social housing and the use of unlawful gatekeeping practices by some local authorities.

“The cost-of-living crisis has further exacerbated this, with rising levels of rent arrears and homelessness disproportionately affecting already marginalised communities.

“In welfare benefits, we have seen a sharp increase in cases where clients are left without income due to flawed or delayed DWP assessments, leaving them reliant on food banks or emergency hardship funds.

“This is compounded in asylum and immigration support work, where delays in decision-making and difficulties accessing the right to appeal continue to leave many in limbo, unable to move forward with their lives.

“Looking ahead, the most impactful change would be a renewed focus on early intervention, accountability and joined-up support across all levels.”

She adds: “At government level, we urgently need the restoration of accessible legal aid and the introduction of sustainable funding models for advice services, which are the first line of defence for many.

“At the local authority level, a commitment to embedding legal rights into decision-making processes, addressing gatekeeping practices and investing in preventative services would make a meaningful difference.

“At service level, deeper collaboration between legal advice providers, community organisations and statutory bodies across the Liverpool City Region is key to creating a more coordinated and client-centred approach.

“Preventing escalation and crisis should not be a luxury – it should be a core principle of public service delivery. As a law centre rooted in the community, we remain committed to pushing for a rights-based, preventative model that delivers justice and dignity for all.”

The report says that, like many local authorities, Liverpool has shifted to a major reliance on tourist accommodation and the private rented sector to safely house the increasing numbers of individuals and families made homeless, largely through no-fault evictions by landlords.

The cost-of-living crisis, including average rent costs growing by 50 per cent in five years, has also made renting in the private sector unaffordable for a large percentage of those on a low income and, with limited available social housing, ‘the problem only grows’. The report says:

“If vulnerable people are unable to find a place to live, they must present to their local authority as homeless, where they may have a legal right to be housed by the local authority.

“However, this is not always the case, and we have seen growing issues with extremely vulnerable people left with no choice but to sleep rough, due to falling through gaps in the council’s service.”

Welfare rights advice is another core service at Vauxhall Law Centre, and its staff continue to challenge the Department for Work and Pensions, whose system for awarding benefits for disabled people, those with long-term physical and mental health issues, and their carers, is said to be ‘inadequate and inherently flawed’.

Delays in decision-making means some clients going without their rightful entitlements to disability benefits for two years, the report adds.

Chris Topping, a trustee of Vauxhall Law Centre and a consultant solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, said: 

“The budget did almost nothing to redress the balance for those who are struggling to get legal advice. We need to challenge that false economic policy of government after government who have, and continue to, cut the Legal Aid budget.

“I believe passionately that access to justice is a basic right. How the poorest and most vulnerable are treated is a measure of a just society.”