Lucy Mansfield
Host Organisation: T. A. Law
Lucy is a trainee Solicitor with TA law gaining experience in Housing law, and Welfare benefits.
She received her BA in History from Swansea University in 2014. Following her undergraduate degree, Lucy pursued to study the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course which she completed in 2016.
During her studies, Lucy was a paralegal in a Legal Aid Criminal Defence firm which specialised in Animal Welfare Law.
Lucy has also interned with the Youth Justice Board by completing a research project and was part of a team who helped create an e-learning resource to help students with Higher Education Study in Law.
Throughout these experiences Lucy has gained real insight of the importance of the availability of Social Welfare Law.
Project
Currently many vulnerable people are experiencing the loss of their disability benefits as people who have been on Disability Living Allowance are being transferred to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
Whilst the new criteria for entitlement to PIP mean that a number of people, will not qualify for the new benefit a number of claimants who should qualify are also failing to qualify because they are failing to convey their difficulties when they complete the claim form. There are a resulting large number of appeals arising from this situation.
The project is to run an advice project for those transitioning from DLA to PIP to maximise the chances of qualifying on initial claim. The advice project will involve meeting the client , advising on PIP and conducting a general benefit check to try and maximise any other benefit income. Where necessary we will continue to assist with any mandatory reconsideration requests and /or appeals to the First tier tribunal.
