The Impacts of Reduced Access to Legal Assistance: Evidence from England and Wales

• In Event: Legal Representation and Justice Outcomes

Abstract

In 2013, England and Wales implemented a sweeping legal aid reform that drastically reduced publicly funded legal assistance for low-income households facing social welfare issues. The 80% funding cut led to uneven provider closures and increased congestion, restricting legal assistance to immediate court actions while eliminating support for early interventions. This paper examines the reform’s impact on access to justice and socioeconomic outcomes for vulnerable populations. Constructing panel data on provider activity from 2011 to 2023, we assess its effects on legal aid availability, eviction and debt court cases, housing market tension, healthcare services use, and mortality. We adopt a dual empirical strategy : first, a difference-in-differences approach leveraging spatial and temporal variations in access to providers, measured by changes in distance; and second, a Bartik instrument to address differential provider resilience to the reform and predict shifts in legal aid flows. We quantify the cumulative impact of reduced access to free, in-person legal assistance on outcomes with lasting socioeconomic implications. Preliminary findings suggest that the legal aid cuts increased the average distance to the nearest provider by 3.2 km. This reduced access led to localized rises in eviction filings and orders, as well as higher mortality over the decade. This study highlights an overlooked intervention targeting households at risk of homelessness and over-indebtedness. Using a Marginal Value for Public Funds framework, it shows how a cost-savings reform initiated by the central government may have shifted welfare costs onto local authorities, offering empirical insights into the unintended socioeconomic and public health consequences of cutting legal aid post-recession.

Author

• Juliet-Nil Uraz, London School of Economics and Political Science
  Presenting Author