Joint briefing: Subsistence payments and legal aid eligibility for victims of trafficking: accessing one entitlement to lose another

March 2021Migration and traffickingPolicy briefs

People who are in the National Referral Mechanism for identifying victims of trafficking (NRM) are ‘entitled’ to legal aid. However legal aid is also means tested. This means not everyone in the NRM is able to access legal aid in practice. This poses a significant barrier to justice for people who are not eligible and denies them a key entitlement. We recommend that being in the NRM should also passport you through the legal aid income and capital tests. This would mean that everyone in the NRM would be able to access legal aid.