Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks is NAWRA representative for the East of England.
For a large part of his working life he has worked in an academic environment, but after more than 25 years chose to have a complete change of career.
In 2006 he began work at Citizens Advice as a volunteer and later gained paid work as a Welfare Rights caseworker run under the auspices of the Legal Services Commission, until this area of work became ‘out of scope’ in February 2013.
Since that time, he has continued to provide legal representation as part of the Information, Advice and Advocacy (IAA) team based at Equal Lives, one of the largest User-Led Organisations in the country and in April 2022 he joined Norfolk Community Law Service (NCLS) as part of their Welfare Rights Appeal and Representation Service.
Michael currently represents NAWRA on the DWP HTP engagement forum.
In his spare time, he enjoys anything that involves spending time in the great outdoors.