Estimator: children’s legal aid

This estimator helps you work out if you are likely to qualify financially for children's legal aid.

Once you complete these fields, an estimate will automatically be provided.

"*" indicates required fields

Step 1: Do you automatically qualify financially?

You must know the type of any benefit you receive to find out if you automatically qualify. You can usually see the type of benefit you are receiving by checking your most recent benefit award letter.

If you do not have an up to date award letter or you are in any doubt about which benefit you receive you should contact your local benefits office.

You automatically qualify if you receive or you are included in your partner’s claim for any of the following benefits:

Income Support
Income based Jobseekers Allowance
Income based Employment and Support Allowance
Universal Credit

That means you will not have to pay a financial contribution towards your case if your application is successful. You do not need to proceed to the Steps below.

You do not automatically qualify if you:

Receive Jobseekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance which is contribution based.

If you do not automatically qualify, you should complete the Steps below.

Do you automatically qualify financially?*

Do you receive, or you are included in your partner’s claim, for any of the following benefits: Income Support Income based Jobseekers Allowance Income based Employment and Support Allowance Universal Credit

Yes

Step 2: Type of Case

For the purposes of the calculator it will be assumed that the person making the claim is an adult.

Help / Information

Type of Case

The letter you have received from SCRA should tell you what type of case this is.

What type of case do you want to get help with?*

Step 3: About your household situation

Tell us about your situation and any dependants living with you – this is a child or person(s) who has (have) no income of their own.

Help / Information

Partner

By 'partner', we mean someone you normally live with as a couple, whether you are:

Married or not
Of the same or different sex

If you have a partner, you must include their resources in the total figures, unless:

You are living apart (Based on the definition above, this would be living apart because of special circumstances?)
They are part of your legal problem

Allowances

You are entitled to an allowance of £42.70 for your partner.
You are entitled to an allowance for each dependant. By a dependant, we mean a child, or person living with you who has no income of their own.
You are entitled to an allowance for each child or other dependant (other than your partner) of £68.60.

Do you have a partner or spouse?*

Yes

How many dependants (adults and/or children) live with you?

Step 4: Weekly Income

As you do not receive any of the benefits listed in the opening question:

Please give us information about your weekly income. This is the total income you and your partner receive in a week.

For example, enter your pay less tax and National Insurance contributions if you are employed plus any other income such as interest on savings.

Depending on your income, you may have to pay a contribution.

Help / Information

Your net weekly income

We calculate your income on what you and your spouse or partner, if you have one, have received in the 7 days before being granted Legal Advice and Assistance by your solicitor.

You must include (rounded up or down to the nearest pound):

Earnings after Income tax and National insurance deductions
Drawings or profits from business
Maintenance payments you receive from either an individual or through the Child Maintenance Service
Statutory sick pay or maternity pay
Pension payments
Student grants
Regular financial support from friends and family
Income from savings and investments
Dividends from shares
Income from any other source<.li>

If your income is paid monthly multiply the amounts by 12 to calculate the annual figure then divide by 52 to calculate a weekly figure.

If your income is paid 4 weekly multiply the amounts by 13 to calculate the annual figure then divide by 52 to calculate a weekly figure.

Maintenance payments

If you pay maintenance, work out what you pay weekly. Do not include any Child Support Agency payments.

Your net weekly income*

Please enter 0 in the space below if you do not receive an income.

Your weekly allowances

This is calculated automatically from the number of dependants in Step 2.

Step 5: Weekly Outgoings

Please enter a value for your total weekly outgoings. Do not include general living expenses such as gas/electricity, clothes, petrol, credit cards, fines, mobile phone bills etc. as a standard allowance is given for these items.

Help / Information

This is the total weekly outgoings for you and your partner.

This includes:

Rent or board and lodgings
Mortgage
Council tax
Loans
Maintenance
Child care payments
Existing contributions

Total weekly outgoings

Weekly disposable income

The amount of weekly disposable income is calculated automatically based on your income, allowances and outgoings.

Step 6: Capital

We calculate your capital and that of your spouse or partner as at the date of your application.

We may take into consideration any capital disposed of when you were likely to be aware of your involvement in litigation, if we don’t consider the reasons given justified.

If you think this may be a situation that applies to you, you can contact us on 0131 560 2164 to check if you should include the capital in this calculation.

Help / Information

We may take into consideration any capital disposed of when you were likely to be aware of your involvement in litigation, if we don’t consider the reasons given justified.

If you think this may be a situation that applies to you, you can contact us on 0131 226 7061 to check if you should include the capital in this calculation.

By capital we mean money and anything else of value you and your spouse or partner (if you have one) own.

Examples of capital include

The value of any interest in land and buildings owned after the deduction of any loans secured on them, including interests in timeshares. We do not include the home you live in.
Money in the bank, building society, Post Office, credit union, premium bonds etc.
Investments, stocks and shares
Cash-in values of any policies
Money owed to you or your spouse or partner
Money due from the will of someone who has died
Money due from a trust fund
Money available from your or your spouse’s or partner’s business or which could be borrowed against the business assets
The value of any valuable possessions such as a boat, caravan, jewellery (but not wedding or engagement rings) or items bought for investment purposes

Capital not to be included

The house which you live in
Tools and equipment you need for work
The value of any property or item you have an interest in which is being sought by the opponent in the action for which your civil application relates to will be disregarded for assessment purposes. However, we will only disregard the amount/share they are putting at issue. For example if you own 50% of a house or some savings and the opponent is asking for it to be split 60/40 in their favour only 10% of your share would be disregarded for assessment purposes.

Total disposable capital

Estimate

An estimate will be provided, when you have completed each of these fields:

Do you automatically qualify financially?

Estimate

Based on your choice above, you may automatically qualify financially for children’s legal aid.

Some final points to be aware of:

Remember that this estimator is only a guide as to whether you are likely to qualify financially for children’s legal aid.

You can also check your financial eligibility by calling our Financial Assessment Unit on 0131 240 2082 (open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm).

The amount you may have to pay may also depend on a number of factors such as:

the type of case you are applying for
the case's complexity
whether it is likely to be contested by your opponent

You can discuss these factors further with your solicitor.

You will also have to meet other tests relating to your case before you can be granted legal aid - these are explained in our Children’s Legal Assistance leaflets - see our leaflets in the New to Legal Aid section.

You can contact a solicitor who can help you with your legal aid application using our Find a Solicitor page - please see section below.

Estimate

An estimate will be provided, when you have completed each of the required fields above. You must provide this information:

What type of case do you want to get help with?
Your net weekly income
Total weekly outgoings
Total disposable capital

Based on the above figures, you are likely to qualify for children's legal aid and you do not have to pay a contribution.

Based on the above figures, you are likely to qualify for children's legal aid.

However, you will have to pay a contribution of TBC

You do NOT qualify for children's legal aid.

Based on the above figures you are unlikely to qualify for Children's legal aid.

However, you may still qualify but would have to meet a hardship test. Your solicitor should be able to help you with this.

Some final points to be aware of:

Remember that this estimator is only a guide as to whether you are likely to qualify financially for Children's legal aid and how much, if anything, you may be asked to pay as a contribution from your disposable income.

Your solicitor will go through these figures with you if you go ahead with your application, and will be able to tell you if you are eligible.

You can also call us on 0131 226 7061 - please ask to speak to the children's assessment team to check your eligibility.

If you decide to apply for Children's legal aid, you will need to take proof (for example payslips, benefit letters, bank statements etc.) of your income and capital with you to your first appointment with your solicitor as they are required by law to satisfy themselves that you are financially eligible. Where you have a spouse or a partner you must also take proof of their income and capital as their resources may require to be taken into account when assessing your financial eligibility to receive Children's legal aid.

You can contact a solicitor who can help you with your legal aid application using our Find a Solicitor page - please see section below.

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Hidden Variables

The field names for each of the hidden variables should be self-descriptive. If the number of allowance brackets change, this form will need rewritten. If the number of brackets sstays the same, but the limits change, then just adapt the variables accordingly. Use numbers, not currency.

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Hidden Calculations

All of the below is where the "magic" happens. Note the followning. 1. There is a JS file in /resources/assets/js/gravity-extras.js, which communicates with these variables. It was not possble to do everything we needed in Gravity Forms alone. This is an uncompiled file, so gulp will need to run before changes will be committed to the front-end version of the site. 2. The HTML content blocks above include a couple of spans with unique IDs. If you choose to remove those Spans, then the user will never see the outputs from the contribution scales.

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Weekly disposable income (hidden)

Calculated here, and the gravity-extras.js JQUERY is then used to populate the publicly visible version. DO NOT EDIT OR DELETE THIS.

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Disposable income less maximum disposable

The maximum_disposable_income is divided by 52. If their weekly_income is more than this, then no legal aid.

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Disposable income less minimum disposable

The minimum_disposable_income is divided by 52. If their weekly_income is less than this, then full legal aid is available (if not ruled out on capital). If their weekly_income is greater than this, and less than "capital less maximum disposable capital", then they will need to pay a contribution.

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Capital less maximum disposable capital

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Is contribution required

This is calculated using jQuery. Basically if they have a disposable income greater than minimum_disposable_income / 52, then this is a positive value.

Find a solicitor

Use our Solicitor Finder tool to search for registered solicitors who may be able to provide advice and represent you in your case.