Health grants for organisations

Organisation

Islington Law Centre

Cloudesley grant

£107,000 January 2020 – December 2022

About the Organisation

Islington Law Centre was established in 1972 and is one of the oldest law centres in London. It provides high quality, free legal advice to enable people to improve their lives. It also seeks to influence the development of law, policy and practice. The Law Centre offers a range of advice, casework and representation to people on low incomes and covers the following areas of law: community care, debt, education, employment, housing, immigration and asylum and welfare benefits.

Project Funded

The Three Advice Project provides an advice service across three partners, Islington Law Centre, providing specialist appointments in welfare benefits, debt and housing, Citizens Advice Islington providing generalist appointments in welfare benefits and Help on Your Doorstep who engage clients and refer to relevant organisations. Due to the pandemic this service was delivered remotely from late March 2020. It has now moved to a hybrid model of some appointments being delivered in person.

Impact of Project

From October 2021 to March 2022 this project has:

• Secured £272,466 in benefits for clients.
• Provided advice on a wide range of benefits including 52 clients supported with PIP and 29 supported with Universal Credit Sickness (UC50)
• Provided 206 clients with advice on a wide range of housing issues.
• Resolved debts totalling £162,454.

What the group says

“We really value our close working relationship with Cloudesley. Like us, Cloudesley values practical assistance that makes a positive difference in people’s lives so working together is an excellent fit. Our advice delivers that positive difference as we provide the longer-term solutions to the issues people face. We simply could not deliver the range of volume of services that we do without the significant contribution from Cloudesley. It is very much appreciated.”

The Cloudesley perspective – why did this project gain support?

The project fits well with the Fund’s focus on addressing health inequalities amongst people experiencing multiple disadvantages.

The Law Centre provides high quality specialist legal advice and support to some of Islington’s most vulnerable residents. The services have helped clients tackle unfair and unlawful treatment; ensured that they have a safe and secure home; that they are getting the income that they are entitled to, and that they are not trapped in debt. These issues all impact disproportionately on residents with health inequalities and contribute to the decline of physical and mental health. The work of ILC addresses this.