810,000 benefit from legal aid supported with welfare lottery fund

BEIJING -- More than 810,000 people had benefited from the legal aid supported by China's public welfare lottery fund as of October, according to the China Legal Aid Foundation (CLAF) on Nov 11.

To lower the threshold for legal aid and expand its range, the central finance launched the project on supporting legal aid with the country's public welfare lottery fund in 2009, which mainly focuses on legal aid cases involving groups with difficulties such as migrant workers, persons with disabilities, the elderly and minors.

The project has since spent 910 million yuan (around $129.8 million) on legal aid, with yearly spending increasing from 50 million yuan in 2009 to 130 million yuan last year.

Over the 10 years, it has helped handle over 530,000 legal aid cases concerning people in difficulties, recovering or acquiring 31.2 billion yuan of economic interests for them, said Zhang Yanzhen, head of the CLAF.