Twenty years ago Mary-Ellen was fulfilling her vocation working as a nurse. She had recently bought a property, in what was then an unfashionable part of London, without knowing how quickly her body would succumb to a rare, cruel and debilitating health condition. Her illness has meant that while her mind and her sense of compassion for those around her has not diminished, she has been left with significant and at times crippling disabilities that have robbed her of her independence and will only worsen.
Prior to the changes to legal aid in 2013 resulting from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), Mary-Ellen would have been financially eligible for legal aid. Since her disability forced her to give up work, her only income is her DWP benefits which would have made her automatically eligible. However, post-2013, the value of her home now puts her over the financial threshold.
