Legal advice

Overview

Access to legal advice is often going to be a key step to help a person avoid or resolve a situation of destitution or homelessness.

Examples of when getting timely legal advice may help a person to avoid becoming homelessness include: 

• When a person who has leave to remain that is subject to the 'no recourse to public funds' (NRPF) condition can apply to the Home Office to request a change of conditions to get the NRPF condition lifted. 
• When a European Economic Area (EEA) national has grounds to appeal a refusal of Universal Credit because it appears that they have been incorrectly found to be ineligible. 
• When a person is being illegally evicted from a private tenancy.

However, free legal advice is not readily available, particularly for people who require immigration advice which is not covered by legal aid. The information in this section is intended to help signpost people who need legal advice about their immigration, asylum, housing or benefits issue.