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Tory cuts have triggered an astonishing 99.5% drop in the number of people getting state help to fight for their benefits.

Just 440 people were given legal aid for "advice and assistance" around welfare cases last year, compared to 83,000 in 2012/13.

Despite the near-total collapse of people getting help, around two-thirds of people who appeal for disability benefits ESA and PIP win their case.

The jaw-dropping revelation was slipped out on the 49th page of a 122-page document published by the Ministry of Justice.

Ministers issued the detailed assessment of their own cuts to legal aid as they launched a review of the shake-up five years on.

The assessment also showed a 74% drop in the number of people getting legal aid in civil and family cases, from 575,000 to 145,000.

And there was a leap in the number of people representing themselves in family cases, from 45,000 to 64,000 over the same period.

Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon told the Independent: “This illustrates the cruelty of this Tory Government’s hollowing-out of legal aid which has deliberately targeted the most vulnerable in society.

“The Conservatives have priced out hundreds of thousands of people from being able to enforce their hard-won rights.

“The Government must use this review to fundamentally repair the damage it has caused in our justice system, rather than simply applying a sticking plaster to a broken system.”

(Image: PA)

It comes after the Justice Secretary gave faint hope to campaigners against the cruel legal aid cuts by promising to look at ‘changes’ to the system.

Tory David Lidington said campaigners - who warn the cuts lock vulnerable people out of justice - will be invited to suggest changes, adding: “I will look at those with an open mind”.

He added he was ‘perfectly willing’ to look at a basic ‘triage’ system to stem the soaring number of people representing themselves in court.

Yet his comments came just a day after he waved through new cuts to criminal legal aid that campaigners branded ‘reckless’.

And he stressed there will always be ‘financial limits on what I can do’, admitting he would welcome ‘a crock of gold’ from the Treasury.