https://www.slab.org.uk/guidance/assessment-of-financial-eligibility-for-criminal-advice-and-assistance-financial-limits-in-keycard-and-contribution/
https://www.slab.org.uk/guidance/assessment-of-financial-eligibility-for-criminal-advice-and-assistance-financial-limits-in-keycard-and-contribution/
Provided your client does not have disposable capital over the specified amount, advice and assistance is available, without contribution to any client who is receiving:
This is also true if your client’s disposable income (for the seven days up to and including the date of application) is below a specified limit as shown in the Keycard.
You must take into account your client’s total income, net of tax and national insurance, from all sources for the seven days immediately preceding the application.
If your client has disposable capital over the specified amount, you cannot give them advice and assistance.
Aggregation of the resources of a spouse or partner
The resources of the applicant’s spouse or partner must be included in the assessment of the applicant’s financial eligibility.
A “partner” means someone the applicant normally lives with as a couple, whether or not they are married and of the same or different sex.
However, the financial resources do not need to be aggregated where:
On the online system, where you select ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Inequitable or impracticable to treat the partners resources as part of the applicant’s resources‘ you must provide reasons for us to consider.
There are some instances where the reason provided may not be accepted, for example, if you state that you have not aggregated resources only because the partner is in receipt of benefits.
Where we advise you that the reason for non-aggregation is unacceptable, we will ask you to update the application and provide details of the partner’s income and capital.
To help you assess eligibility, we publish a Keycard every April which contains a summary of the assessment rules, the current income and capital limits and the table of contributions.
Your client may be liable to pay a contribution.
This is all dependent on the level of your client’s disposable income, as assessed by you [Section 11 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986]. You collect it and do not pay it to us.
Whether you collect a contribution is your own decision.
You may decide to:
A contribution is payable by your client and this sum cannot be claimed from the Fund.
Advice and assistance application procedures
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