02/11/2009 – LSC overpays solicitors almost £25 million in legal aid
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has been urged to impose sanctions on solicitors making incorrect claims for legal aid fees after a National Audit Office report on the Commission's accounts found almost £25 million in overpayments.
As part of its annual audit of the LSC, the National Audit Office identified an estimated overpayment of £24.7 million to solicitors as a result of payments for advice to claimants who were not eligible or where solicitors had overclaimed. The report found that the highest level of financial error occurred in cases relating to solicitors working on family and immigration claims with 25 per cent of claims either being unsupoprted or incorrect.
Calling on the Commission to address the issue, Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said -
'A significant sum of taxpayers' money is being paid to solicitors in error. The Legal Services Commission needs to build on its existing efforts to tighten its controls on payments to solicitors and on how it monitors the eligibility of cases supported by legal aid.'
In rersponse the LSC has recognised that a number of factors have contributed to the error including -
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the complexity of the fee regime;
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the limited controls to validate the accuracy of submitted claims; and
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the quality of the Commission's post-payment internal assurance processes.
Carolyn Regan, the LSC's chief executive, said they were taking steps to recover the overpayments and 'strengthening the controls in our systems' as well as working with providers to stress the importance of 'accurate claims, eligibility assessment and record keeping'.
In addition, the Law Society has disputed the suggestion that solicitors had been deliberately over claiming with Richard Miller, the Society's legal aid manager, saying -
'Our experience is that people without knowledge of the system who try to audit files do not fully understand the work done by lawyers or the system under which they operate. The complexities of the scheme are what need to be looked at urgently, not the solicitors using it. The rules and guidance as to which category to claim in are hopelessly unclear.'
More information on the Community Legal Service Fund and Criminal Defence Service accounts 2008-09 is available on the National Audit Office website.
The BBC News story Lawyers 'exploit' legal aid cash is available here.