Our Social Impact
Z2K: Vital support for people living with disabilities
Charles Russell Speechlys has been working with anti-poverty charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (Z2K) since December 2019, when we started working pro bono for its clients, helping them to appeal unfair Disability Benefits decisions.
To date our lawyers have supported 19 clients with their Disability Benefits Appeals process and achieved 14 successful outcomes so far with over £340,000 in wrongly withheld benefits and back payments being secured for our clients.
Fiona Edmond, Deputy Senior Partner, who is a champion for the Firm’s work with Z2K comments: “Social welfare benefits can make a significant difference to people's lives. Sadly too many claimants are unable to access them, despite being entitled to those benefits. We support our clients through writing the appeal and then preparing with them for the hearing as well as attending it. We are just delighted for our clients when there is a successful appeal as we know that it will have a direct impact on their day-to-day life.”
Over £340,000 in wrongly withheld benefits and back payments have been secured for our clients.
Building our partnerships for greater impact
Our partnership with Z2K is evolving. In 2021, our client, Atkins Global, joined the collaboration - fielding lawyers from its in-house team to help us support more of Z2K's clients with their appeals. This year we have launched a brand new initiative, assisting Z2K clients to complete their disability benefits application forms. We hope this will help more Z2K clients to secure the award they need at the outset and avoid a potentially stressful appeal process.
The Disability Benefits Appeals project is open to all lawyers in the Firm, and our recently launched form-filling initiative complements the work our lawyers are doing on the Disability Benefits Appeals and the form-filling initiative is open to staff across Charles Russell Speechlys.
The form-filling initiative is vitally important, according to Anela Anwar, Chief Executive of Z2K. She feels that the existing system for assessing disability benefits claims is flawed and, as a result, many people are not receiving the financial support to which they are entitled.
“We find that our clients, and certainly those who may have additional needs or are in more vulnerable situations, can be supported to better complete that form so that decisions can be made better the first time round,” says Anela. “We want to try and prevent someone having to go through a lengthy appeal process, so we are working with partners like Charles Russell Speechlys, whose staff members are supporting our clients when they're either doing their first assessment or when they're being reassessed.” Although the form-filling initiative is still at an early stage, Anela is hopeful that it will help to improve outcomes for clients. “Our clients are people with a low income that are experiencing or are at risk of poverty and destitution, and without that free advice and representation provided by Charles Russell Speechlys they wouldn't be able to appeal the decisions and secure the income that they are entitled to and that they need to make ends meet,” says Anela. “Being able to partner with them allows more people who are denied the benefits they're entitled to, to seek justice.”
“Historically, we’ve always gone to Charles Russell Speechlys for ad hoc things and no question is ever too large. We can approach them for anything that we need, and for a charity of our size, that level of help is invaluable.”
Samantha Evans, Fundraising Manager, Z2K
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