Hackney law centre launches form-filling service

The Hackney Community Law Centre (HCLC) has launched a new service, in conjunction with students and staff from BPP Law School, to help people fill out their disability living allowance (DLA) and employment support allowance (ESA) forms. A BPP student will be first on the scene, picking up with the initial query, speaking to the person on the phone, gathering information and then setting up an appointment with a volunteer lawyer.

Welcoming the new service, HCLC Chair Ian Rathbone said: "Filling in forms can hold terrors for anyone from any walk of life, and can often result in people not filling them in and claiming what they need to survive, or filling them incorrectly. This service will help people fill in ESA and DLA forms, which we have noted have proved to be difficult for folk to fill in correctly. It will also save the authorities time and money by getting the correctly filled-in form first time around hopefully."

HCLC is also running an innovative pop-up legal advice shop in Dalston, again in association with BPP and LawWorks. It offers advice on consumer and debt issues.