The Government’s decision to raise UK immigration and asylum tribunal fees by 500 per cent will act as a barrier to justice and prevent vulnerable people from having their claims heard a prominent Catholic charity has warned.
The decision means that fees for an application to the first-tier tribunal dealing with immigration and asylum cases will increase from £80 to £490 for a hearing made on paper, and from £140 to £800 for an oral hearing. Fees of up to £500 will be introduced for the first time for appeals to the upper tribunal.
The sharp increase in fees will prevent immigration and asylum applicants from having their appeal heard in an appropriate way, the Cardinal Hume Centre, a Catholic organisation providing free immigration advice, warned in a written response to the Ministry of Justice, as part of a government consultation prior to the fee raises. “Immigration cases are complex and therefore require oral hearings,” wrote the Cardinal Hume Centre. Adding that, in their experience, they always advised applicants against paper hearings.
The Centre added that applicants could resort to desperate measures in order to raise the fees, citing an example of a woman who said she had turned to prostitution in an attempt to meet the costs of a hearing. Alongside the fee raises, announced last Friday, the Ministry of Justice has promised to extend their existing exemptions policy to include the Home Office’s fee waiver scheme, which states that fees may be lifted if an applicant is deemed ‘destitute’.
Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN), an agency run by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to support 43 charities helping vulnerable people in the UK, said in a statement that it supported the Ministry of Justice’s decision to adopt the fee waiver policy set out by the Home Office, and will continue to campaign that it be applied liberally and fairly.
The Cardinal Hume Centre said that although they supported the extension, they were concerned that, in practice, it would make little difference. According to Home Office figures 84 per cent of applications for fee waivers are refused. The Centre cited an example of a street homeless client who was not judged to be destitute by the Home Office.
CSAN and the Cardinal Hume Centre were two of 147 respondents – including law firms, members of the judiciary and academic institutions – consulted by the government on the fee hike. All but five of the respondents opposed the increases. The Ministry of Justice said it was grateful for the responses to the consultation, but the policy remained that, where fees were charged to access public services, they should be set at such a level to recover the full cost.
The Public and Commercial Services Union told the Guardian: “It is utterly reprehensible that this government is pressing ahead with a 500% increase in tribunal fees, despite overwhelming opposition from law firms, judges, professional bodies, charities and unions”.
The Ministry of Justice said the fee increases would secure the funding of immigration and asylum tribunals, while “protecting access to justice and the most vulnerable appellants through extension of the fee exemption scheme”.
The fee increases for first-tier tribunals will be implemented as soon as possible, followed by those for the upper tribunal.
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