Reaching out and standing strong...

A report on the first year of operation of community 2013-2014

Reaching out and standing strong...

A report on the first year of operation of Birmingham Community Law Centre 2013-2014

1 Our purpose

To fight social exclusion in communities and to effect change in society by increasing rights awareness and using legal processes to fight , inequality and discrimination.

We will do this by:

)) Being active in communities and )) Treating clients and each other with developing individual and community respect, and building the confidence of rights individual clients and communities )) Working in partnership with )) Being independent and politically other advice agencies, voluntary neutral, and always acting in the best organisations and community groups interests of the client )) Being accessible to vulnerable )) Being flexible and adaptable to individuals and communities meet changing needs and emerging )) Offering specialist, professional, high problems. quality advice and representation

97 Walford Road, Sparkbrook Birmingham, B11 1NP Tel. 0121 772 6233 Email: [email protected] Web: www.birminghamclc.org.uk Twitter: @BhamLawCen

Birmingham Community Law Centre is the Birmingham office of Law Centre

Registered Office: Oakwood House, St Patricks Road, Coventry, CV1 2HL

Tel: 024 7622 3053 | [email protected] www.covlaw.org.uk

Member of the Law Centres Network Registered with OISC for immigration and asylum VAT registration number: 544 9032 44 Registered in & as Coventry Law Centre Ltd, a company limited by guarantee: 4149673 Registered as a charity: 1087312 Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority

2 Contents

Introduction...... 4

A law centre service for Britain’s second city...... 6

Partnerships and influencing...... 8

Community drop-in and advice sessions ...... 10

Migrant families support project ...... 12

Welfare benefits...... 14

Debt related work...... 16

Health and social care...... 18

Immigration, employment and pro bono advice clinics. . . . .20

Our public law work...... 22

The team (staff, volunteers and trustees) ...... 24

Thanks ...... Back page

All names used in the stories are fictional. They are not the names of our clients.

3 Introduction

Introduction by Professor Harinder Bahra, Chair of Coventry Law Centre

In 2013, Coventry Law Centre established a need with limited resources. The new law specialist legal advice service in Birmingham centre in Birmingham has succeeded in to begin to fill the gap left by the closure changing the model of advice provision to of Birmingham Law Centre (BLC). It was local communities. This report demonstrates inconceivable for many that a city the size of how this has been done and the contribution Birmingham could lose its law centre denying we have made. some of its most vulnerable citizens access to I am very grateful the Bangladesh Centre, advice and justice. who were our first backers and allowed us Working in partnership, we combined the to use their building rent free for 12 months, expertise, local knowledge and contacts of as well as to the local and national charitable some staff who were employed by BLC with trust funds who supported our vision and the organisational strength, management and provided funds to launch the new law centre. leadership capability of Coventry Law Centre This investment has given us the time and to create Birmingham Community Law Centre space to start work on winning the kind of (BCLC) – the Birmingham office of Coventry longer term contacts that will secure the law Law Centre. centre’s future and allow us to help even more The closure of BLC, the austerity measures people. with the loss of huge swathes of and I am grateful to Sue Bent, our Director, who a much tighter funding environment for advice has worked tirelessly to lead this project, as agencies has seen a major contraction of the well as to Michael, Habib and Judy, the three voluntary sector in Birmingham and across the former BLC staff members whose vision and UK. original proposal it was to save a law centre There are now fewer agencies with service for Birmingham and who have made fewer members of staff having to provide it a reality by their hard work and dedication services to even greater numbers of clients, to working for the community. I would also as a combination of welfare reform and like to thank Lord Bach, our patron and CLC local funding cuts continue to hit the most trustees for their support and wise counsel vulnerable in society, damaging social over the years. cohesion. So, when we opened BCLC, it was clear that the provision of legal advice needed to be redesigned to meet growing

4

A law centre A law centre service for Britain’s second city

With a population of just over one million, Birmingham is the largest local authority in the country. Approximately 40% of Birmingham’s population lives in areas described as the most deprived 10% in England. Birmingham is ranked the third most deprived core city in the UK, behind Liverpool and Manchester, and is ranked the most deprived in terms of both income and employment deprivation.

The new law centre service is based at the The needs of the local community in Bangladesh Centre in Sparkbrook, the second Sparkbrook are driven by a combination of most deprived ward in Birmingham. This is a social welfare problems and immigration community owned building that is directly on status. The specialist expertise within the new the Number 8 bus route – which connects law centre concerns migrants’ rights -both for the eight inner-city wards where deprivation is established migrant communities with leave highest. to remain as well as newer migrants with less Sparkbrook has a very long established settled status. migrant community: 64% of the local Our work is founded on a very specific legal population is from the South Asian community advice practice dealing with cases where with just under 10% from the Caribbean. immigration, community care and benefits There are growing numbers of Somalis, join together. We work with an extensive including refugees and asylum seekers as well network of friends and other agencies: ASIRT, as those who have moved here directly from Red Cross, Refugee Council, Hope Housing, other countries in the European Union. Lifeline Options, Restore, Terrence Higgins Trust and Asylum Support Appeals Project.

6 The first 12 months in numbers

568 Number of unique clients seen

1132 Face-to-face interviews completed

46 Percentage of Bangladeshi clients

13 Percentage of Pakistani clients

13 Percentage of Somali clients

34 Total number of different client nationalities

189 Full cases opened

15 Representation at benefits appeal tribunal hearings

45 Welfare benefits upper tribunal cases opened

4 County court hearings

2 Debt Relief Orders

1 Bankruptcy

3 Judicial review applications lodged

Since opening, we have been able to expand our services and we aim to continue that expansion. We are currently recruiting two debt advisers to deliver a Money Advice Service funded Debt Advice Project. We will run advice sessions from the law centre as well as Sparkbrook Children’s Centre and the TUC Centre for the Unemployed in Sparkhill.

7 Partnerships Partnerships and influencing

During the first year of activity we have contributed to a number of groups working in Birmingham.

by the uncoordinated immigration advice ASIRT (Asylum Support and funding provided by Birmingham City Council. Immigration Resource Team) It is supported through GBAS (see below). Through the combined work of GBAS and Run by Dave Stamp, ASIRT is a not-for- the three partners in the Migrant Support profit OISC-registered advocacy organisation Project, we have formulated a costed working to support asylum-seekers, refugees immigration advice strategy, titled “Improving and other people in the West Midlands who access to justice: working together to reduce are or have been subject to immigration costs and poverty in Birmingham”. control. They share our office and assist many The next step will be to present this of our clients. We have a very close working strategy paper to the lead officer directing the relationship with ASIRT and much of the response to the scrutiny committee report into public law work we have undertaken has been no recourse to public finds (NRPF) families. with clients referred to us by them. The close working does not end at the point of referral and there has been a lot of collaboration Family Action between the organisations to get these important cases up and running. ASIRT also Family Action and the law centre run a drop- includes Sunny Omwenyeke from Regional in advice session every Tuesday afternoon to Asylum Activism. provide welfare benefits and debt advice to families with children under five. This session is lead by Shaleha Begum. Birmingham Immigration Advice Strategy Gateway to Birmingham We have been instrumental in setting up Advice Services and continuing the work of the Birmingham Immigration Advice Group. This group was We are playing an active role in the Citizens initially set up to look at the difficulties posed Advice Bureau-led Gateway to Birmingham

8 Advice Services (GBAS) – aimed at streamlining the referral process for clients using Birmingham’s advice services – which is funded by the Big Lottery Advice Services Transition Fund. This allows us to maintain contact with advice providers in Birmingham and to influence how the sector evolves in these times of severe budget cuts. It is important to us that agencies play the part most suited to them in the client journey and that we make sure our services do not overlap, thus ensuring efficient use of reduced resources.

Scrutiny committee report into NRPF families

We continue to be involved in the response to the scrutiny committee’s report, and are playing an important role in co-designing a service to provide housing, social work support and legal advice to families with no recourse to public funds. An outline of the model we are proposing has now been sent to Birmingham City Council to help them decide on the approach they wish to take in commissioning new services for these families. The potential consortium also includes the Children’s Society and Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid.

Faithfull Neighbourhoods Centre

Through our connections with the Faithfull Neighbourhoods Centre, we have started work with some Birmingham-based food banks to begin to understand the underlying causes of food bank usage, with a particular focus on benefits sanctions. We have started a programme of sanctions awareness-raising with food bank volunteers.

9 Community Community drop-in and advice sessions

Since opening the doors to clients at the end of September last year we have run twice weekly advice sessions aimed at meeting the needs of the local community. These sessions were run as drop-ins for the first 12 months, covering advice on welfare benefits and debts as well as an assortment of other legal issues.

In order to see more people with Of course, this way of working is not suitable fewer staff, we have designed the for all of our clients and, where matters are service to: particularly complex or clients are vulnerable, we have undertaken casework. Factors such )) quickly assess the merits of the legal as a client’s ability to communicate effectively case in English or to cope with multiple problems, )) cut the ongoing work up into or the extent to which outcomes impact on manageable stages children, the disabled and the elderly inform )) agree with the client what help we the decisions we make to target our limited will provide at each stage as the case resources and prioritise cases. progresses. The success of the drop-in has in no small measure been down to the ability of our This will be different in each case and requires solicitor, Habib Ullah, to conduct culturally an honest assessment of someone’s skills sensitive advice sessions in community and abilities. Some of our clients have been languages and to understand the needs of the able to deal with more stages of their own local community and build their trust in us. It case than others but we have found that this is noticeable that the number of Somali clients approach has enabled us to see more clients has steadily increased over the year. We are overall. proud that this community feels comfortable in approaching us for help.

10 The drop-in service has been inundated and many times we have had to extend the sessions well beyond the allocated time. Habib has regularly seen 17 or 18 clients in a session and the waiting room has often been full within half an hour of opening the door. Indeed, by September this year it became clear that, due to the large number of clients turning up, the drop-in had become unsustainable. We have now introduced an appointment system to avoid long waiting times. There are a number of clients who are

We are proud that this community feels comfortable in approaching us for help dependent on the law centre for their advice due to disability or language difficulties and are frequent visitors to the centre. The situation of a particular elderly widow comes to mind. She has been coming to the centre for advice for more than 13 years. She is the main carer for her adult son who has mental health problems. Due to lack of English and not having access to advice in her own language there is frequent confusion with her benefit entitlement and her disabled son’s benefit entitlement. Her health has now significantly deteriorated so we will be requesting a social services assessment. We have also provided her son with advice on immigration matters in a further example of how the extension of the areas of legal advice we are now providing is benefitting the local community.

11 Migrants Migrant families support project

This project, funded by the Baring Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy and Comic Relief, aims to improve access to legal advice services for migrant families and individuals with no recourse to public funds in Birmingham. This is a partnership with ASIRT and Hope Projects. We provide training, raise awareness and influence policy on the rights to support for migrant families. The project aims are:

)) increasing awareness among asylum )) establishing provision of funding by seekers, refugees and undocumented local authority for expert legal advice migrants that many of their difficulties for migrant communities. are legal problems with legal solutions )) improving access to advice and We have trained a number of community information allowing migrants to rely on organisations on access to social services the rule of law for protection for destitute migrant families. We are working )) improving public sector policy and with Birmingham City Council to influence decision making in relation to migrant its response to their inquiry into services for communities migrant families with no recourse to public funds.

12 Case study

Jasmin Jasmin, from Gambia, arrived in actual physical domestic violence, the UK in 2002. She lives with her that they could only look after her eight year old son and her former son, taking him into care and that partner. The relationship with her she should return to Gambia. She former partner broke down a was advised that as there was number of years ago but Jasmin no evidence from the police she cannot afford to leave even would not be able to satisfactorily though she has been told to go. show that she had been a victim She has limited leave to remain of domestic violence. After and is allowed to work, but has receiving this advice, Jasmin no recourse to public funds. Her refused to engage any further son has the same status. Jasmin for fear of having her son taken works four hours a day for an into care. Despite the threat of agency, earning £150 per week. domestic violence, she returned If she had access to benefits like to the former family home on the other working single parents she basis that she had nowhere else would be entitled to Child Benefit, to go. Tax Credits and Housing Benefit We were able to negotiate with totalling £185 per week. children’s services and secure For the last few years Jasmin’s accommodation for Jasmin as former partner has pressurised well as some financial support her to leave. He has stopped for her during the school holidays communicating with her unless when she was not working. We an argument erupts. Jasmin says were also able to refer her to that he has pushed her but has ASIRT for assistance with an not been violent, although she application to the Home Office is fearful that he could be at any to lift the NRPF condition on her time. After one such argument passport. last month Jasmin left the home Jasmin will soon be moved into and was put up in a hotel, paid more suitable accommodation for by a friend. She was then and we will assist her with the assessed by social services in transition to mainstream benefits, the morning, given emergency which will allow her access to accommodation for that night and the same in-work benefits as told a social worker would visit her other working single parents. the following morning. However, In the spirit of collaborative she was refused entry to the early intervention with the local accommodation as no payment authority, this outcome was was made, and had to return to achieved without recourse to the hotel for a second night. judicial review, demonstrating how When she returned to social working with vulnerable families services she was told they would can be done without resorting to only be able to help if there was expensive litigation.

13 Benefits Welfare benefits

Welfare benefit enquiries have been wide ranging. Some have been quick and simple, resolved with either a phone call to the relevant government department or a short letter. Others have involved appealing to the Upper Tribunal and/or considering the possibility of making an application for judicial review.

For the many cases that fall in between, we rights and giving them guidance about how have successfully used our model of shared to move their case on to the next stage has work with our clients to bring a number worked particularly well in welfare benefits of cases to a successful resolution. This cases. approach of advising people on their legal

Achievements

We operate the Legal Aid Welfare Benefits A number of partner organisations in Upper Tribunal contract for the Midlands on Birmingham have referred Upper Tribunal behalf of the Law Centres Network and can cases to us and we have been able to use advise on appeals from the First-tier Tribunal the GBAS partnership to raise awareness of on a point of law to the Upper Tribunal. We this service as well as to organise referrals. can help assess the reasons for the First-tier We have worked on 45 Upper Tribunal appeal Tribunal decision, request permission and cases since starting the contract in November draft applications to the Upper Tribunal. last year.

14 Case Studies

Amina Crystina Amina, a single parent, had been accused Crystina, an EU national, worked for many of a failure to disclose capital leading to years in the UK before falling ill. She had to overpayments of nearly £10,000 going stop work and claimed Employment and back a number of years. We successfully Support Allowance. Crystina was refused assisted with the Income Support appeal on the basis that she did not have a right but the council pursued the alleged to reside for benefit purposes. Crystina’s overpayment of Council Tax Benefit. partner is profoundly deaf and unable We again successfully assisted with the to speak. His inability to communicate, Council Tax Benefit appeal but the local alongside Crystina’s poor English, made this authority made a fresh decision going couple very vulnerable, but our experience back longer than the period covered by of dealing with people whose first language the appeal. They were adamant that this is not English helped us to deal with the period was not subject to the successful case. appeal and Amina would have to appeal We made submissions to the Tribunal again. Eventually, the local authority was relating to the Right to Reside test for persuaded by our legal arguments and EU nationals. After waiting many months removed the overpayments. for the appeal to be heard, her appeal was allowed. However, after receiving the Barkat Tribunal’s decision, Jobcentre Plus informed Crystina that they would not start payments Barkat is an EU national of African origin as they were considering appealing the who had moved to the UK to work. After decision. The time for requesting the a while his three children joined him. He statement of reasons passed and still made a claim for Tax Credits but, despite Jobcentre Plus were not willing to begin providing all the information requested, regular payments or the arrears owed to was informed that his claim was cancelled. Crystina. Throughout the period waiting for his The law does not provide any appeal appeal, the Tax Credits Office ignored rights where Jobcentre Plus do not directions from the Tribunal and did not implement the Tribunal’s decision. The First- provide evidence to the Tribunal in a timely tier Tribunal also has no powers to force manner. Jobcentre Plus to implement its decision. Eventually, Barkat was successful but the The only option was to challenge the refusal Tax Credit Office still did not commence by judicial review in the High Court. payments. We therefore issued a judicial We argued that benefit suspension was review pre-action protocol letter to the unlawful and that Crystina should also HMRC Solicitor’s Office on the grounds be entitled to interim relief pending the of unreasonable delay and failure to outcome of the case on the basis that she act, making it clear that we would issue was exercising EU rights. A judicial review proceedings in the High Court if the matter pre-action protocol letter was issued to the was not resolved. After prompting by their DWP solicitor’s office detailing the grounds. solicitor, the Tax Credits Office awarded Following this Jobcentre Plus started regular Barkat tax credits and issued arrears fortnightly payments and sent Crystina totalling £14,000. arrears totalling £7,800.

15 Debt Debt related work

The majority of the debt work undertaken at the law centre has been non-priority debt work with some county court money claims and a few cases for possession of property. There have also been a number of insolvency cases for bankruptcy and debt relief orders. Alongside civil debts we have also dealt with a few magistrates’ court fines.

It has been straightforward to apply our guidance about how to draft a defence and model of shared working to debt cases. We checked it once it has been drafted by the have, for example, given initial advice about client, and advised how to proceed at the the merits of defending a money claim, given court hearing.

Case studies

Dalvinder This approach worked well for Dalvinder who The statutory declaration carried more had a magistrates’ court fine for a parking evidential weight than a standard letter. After offence he had not committed, which was receiving our help and advice Dalvinder was in danger of becoming a criminal matter that confident enough to attend the hearing on would have affected his ability to continue his own where the magistrates dismissed the working. We researched the Highway Code case against him. and legislation relating to the alleged offences We successfully challenged a number of and advised Dalvinder on drafting a response debts for clients - including a mobile phone in the form of a statutory declaration pointing bill that the county court judge eventually out the inconsistencies in the police officers dismissed - and have assisted clients with witness statement. applications for bankruptcy and DROs.

16 Emir Emir had been in a business partnership. About a year and a half after it ended he received a tax decision for late filing. With penalties and charges the initial fine increased to £1,400. Emir went to his accountants numerous times, without any resolution, before attending our drop-in session. We made contact with the relevant department and submitted a late appeal explaining the reasons for the appeal. HMRC accepted this and have cancelled all penalties and interest.

Farhat Farhat is a private tenant. His landlord has applied for possession on the grounds of rent arrears. Farhat insists there are no rent arrears, and while he accepts the landlord is entitled to take possession of the property, an eviction order on the grounds of rent arrears will have serious consequences for him and his family as the local authority and housing associations are likely to class them as intentionally homeless. We assisted Farhat to file a defence and witness statements, and represented him at the court possession hearing. The court did not grant the landlord a possession order, which is unusual as generally private landlords are granted possession upon application. The judge adjourned the hearing as it was evident that the Farhat had an arguable defence. The court gave directions for further evidence to be filed and served and directed that once both parties had complied with that a direction hearing and a trial date would be set in due course. The landlord has now decided to withdraw the claim for possession based on rent arrears.

17 Social Care Health and social care

This is the area of law that deals with access to support from local authority social services or the NHS and the difficult area of dispute that can arise between the two.

Since August this year, we have been advice and we have begun to work with operating a Legal Aid Agency community partner organisations to offer an advice care contract which allows us to help service for vulnerable clients with physical, with obtaining an assessment from social mental or learning disabilities, children, services as well as challenge decisions the elderly and victims of domestic abuse. on the provision of services, for example, We are working closely with Birmingham aids and adaptations, disabled facilities Rathbone, Midland Mencap, Age UK, Action grants, accommodation and support under for Blind People and Birmingham and Solihull s17 Children Act 1989 or s21 National Women’s Aid. Assistance Act 1948. The legal aid contract brings with it the This fits well with the work we have been ability to fund judicial review which is usually doing to assist families and individuals in the only way of challenging decisions of need but whose immigration status means public bodies on community care matters. they have no recourse to public funds. This can be the only way to persuade a However, it also allows us to expand our local authority to carry out an assessment or reach into other areas of community care provide a service to meet an assessed need. Achievements

We have not been operating the contract for very long but have already some early examples of success:

)) We helped our client avoid street )) In another case our client is challenging homelessness by forcing the local the drastic reduction in her day centre authority to continue funding refuge service and whether or not the local accommodation and financial support. authority has completed a lawful consultation process.

18 19 Pro Bono Immigration, employment and pro bono advice clinics

The Barrow Cadbury Trust has provided funding to establish advice clinics on immigration and employment matters .These started in October 2014 and are run by solicitors from our Coventry office, assisted by local law students from the University of Birmingham, allowing us to maximise the number of people we can see. We advise clients on whether they have a case and the likely outcome of the case.

All clients are provided with an information students. This makes the experience more pack to assist them in taking their case worthwhile for the students and also assists forward, and advised on how to use the the client. materials in the pack to progress their case if We have started to build build a network of it is appropriate and if they wish to do so. pro bono solicitors and barristers to whom Some clients will have their cases taken on we can refer cases, We are looking forward by a legal adviser and our aim is to secure a to developing this network with colleagues network of pro bono legal advisers who will from the commercial legal sector as we look be available to do this. Some clients will also to see how we can increase advice capacity in be given a level of ongoing support by the Birmingham.

20 Other activity

We have worked hard to establish relationships with the Birmingham corporate legal sector. Not only is this an outcome for the GBAS partnership, but we have also had cause to lean on our better resourced friends in the city centre for help with casework. We required help to front the cost of preparing and copying 15 court bundles for our Court of Appeal test case, Sanneh v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Very graciously, SGH Martineau Solicitors lent us their print room staff and provided us with paper, ring-binders and the cost of postage to help us with this task, totalling in excess of £700, an amount the law centre was simply unable to afford. DLA Piper have also allowed us to use their conference facilities for a meeting that we have co-ordinated to brief migrants’ rights groups on the government’s upcoming Landlords Immigration Checks pilot.

21 Public Law Our public law work

Public law challenges have played a prominent role in the life of the new law centre. These cases have grown out of the work we have been doing with migrant communities and the partnership we have with ASIRT. In November, our test case on entitlement to benefits for third country national primary carers of British children, Sanneh v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, was heard in the Court of Appeal. Judgment was reserved and we hope to have a decision by the end of the year.

Examples Immigration Appeal Tribunal Fee Exemption Challenge.

In April this year, the law centre issued judicial of destitution. If you are able to show that review proceedings challenging the decision you are in receipt of social services support of the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and from your local authority under section 17 of Asylum) to refuse to allow two of our clients the children act 1989, then you should be an exemption from the £140 tribunal fee for exempt from the fee. their immigration appeal hearings. In all, four All four of our clients are single parents of ASIRT’s clients had applied to appeal their and are being supported under section immigration decisions and were arranging the 17. The first-tier tribunal responded to our hearings when they were told that they would applications by arguing that, as section 17 not be exempt from the fees. support is provided to the child, then the The fee regime for immigration appeal mother could not be exempt from the fees as hearings allows for exemptions on the basis it was the mother’s immigration appeal not

22 the child’s. We argued that section 17 payments are made in order to promote the well-being of children in need with their families and that it is an artificial construction of the rules in order to try to separate the mother and child for these purposes. The tribunal did not accept our argument but stated that on “an exceptional basis” they would waive the fees in the case of our four different clients. We decided, along with our clients, that this was an issue of importance to many other clients in the same situation and one that should be tested by the courts on the basis that the first- tier tribunal’s policy in this case was unlawful. After considering our application for Judicial Review, the government has now accepted our construction of the fees regulations, conceded this case and has agreed our costs. We will publicise some of the detail in the consent order so as to show other clients that receipt of Children Act support will allow for a fee exemption. We are very pleased to have successfully resisted attempts by the authorities to put further barriers in the way of access to justice for our clients.

Citizenship Applications Fee Exemption Challenge

We have a second fees case in the High Court looking to challenge the fact that there is simply no mechanism to exempt applicants from the fee for citizenship applications. This has potentially even greater implications for our clients on the basis that the fee is much higher. It is currently £674 and there are perhaps thousands of beneficiaries as the number of children aged 10 or over, born in the UK and currently living in social services accommodation continues to increase. In our application for Judicial Review, we argued that having no fee exemption scheme potentially breaches our client’s human rights and that the fees regulations should either be read as having such a discretion or declared unlawful. The High Court has decided that we have an arguable case and has granted us permission to proceed to a full hearing.

23 The Team

We place a high priority on the training and development of our staff. This represents an investment in the future of our services at a time when it is increasingly difficult to attract solicitors to work in social welfare law and legal aid.

Michael Bates Fahima Begum CASEWORKER AND MANAGER Fahima has been our temporary receptionist for the last few months. She worked at Birmingham Law Michael worked for Birmingham Law Centre for Centre for 12 years and was able to quickly step in 17 years before its closure in August 2013 and and provide cover on reception whilst we recruited a specialises in the area of law where immigration new member of staff. status affects entitlement to social and welfare support. He has experience of representation in the First-tier and Upper Tribunal as well as Judicial Judy Parkinson Review. ADMINISTRATOR Judy is BCLC’s administrator and is in charge of Habib Ullah legal aid billing. Judy is now working part time SOLICITOR AND CASEWORKER in Coventry and part-time in Birmingham. She previously worked for Saltley and Nechells Law Habib used to work for Birmingham Law Centre. He Centre as well as Birmingham Law Centre. was there for 15 years and is a specialist in welfare benefits and debt advice. He has experience of representing clients at all levels through the courts and tribunals and is fluent in several community Volunteers languages including Bangla and Urdu. Shahina Choudhury Andy Malik Mehnaz Mallik CASEWORKER Shaheen Akhtar Andy has been working at law centres since 2004. Katie Knafler He specialises in representing in complex welfare benefit matters before all tribunals. He has a number of reported decisions to his credit, including SD v Trustees Newcastle City Council. He also is able to deal with housing and community care matters. Prof. Harinder Bahra (Chair) Roger Hughes Tahsin Chowdhury June Jeffrey RECEPTIONIST Celia Christie Tahsin has just joined the team as the BCLC Keith Wilding receptionist and will bring his client care experience Councillor Linda Bigham and his energy and enthusiasm to the law centre. Graham Moffat

24

Thanks The Centre thanks all its funders. Without their support we would not be able to do the work described in this report.

The Harry Payne Trust

97 Walford Road, Sparkbrook Birmingham, B11 1NP Tel. 0121 772 6233 Email. [email protected] Web: www.birminghamclc.org.uk Twitter: @BhamLawCen

Thanks to Aidan Harris for photography