Keycards for 2019/20 published

The keycards for 2019/20 have been published on our website and will come into effect on Monday 8 April.

These can be used for quick reference when you require information on the various eligibility limits, contributions and clawback levels (where applicable) in advice and assistance, civil legal aid or children’s legal aid.

While there has been no change to the financial limits or dependants’ allowances, some of the guidance in the keycards has been updated.  A note of the various updates are listed below.

Civil

• Page 3 – Subject Matter of Dispute – We have included reference to where you can find our detailed guidance on Subject Matter of Dispute in the Civil Guidance.
• Page 3 – Documentary evidence of client’s financial circumstances – Some additional guidance has been added about what to do when your client does not supply a bank statement.
• Page 7 – Disregards for applicants of a pensionable age – In some cases these disregards have been mistaken to be higher eligibility limits and applied to all applicants of a pensionable age. These disregards should only be applied to the calculation when the applicant is of a pensionable age and their disposable Income is less than £105 per week. We have included examples to show how to apply this disregard.

Criminal A&A

• Page 2 – Partners –  Additional text to clarify the situations where the resources of an applicant’s partner can be disregarded. This can be due to a contrary interest, living separate and apart, or where it might be inequitable or impracticable to aggregate the resources.
• Page 4 – Police Station Cases –  New wording to reflect the changes made to Legal Aid Online last year.
• Page 13 – Initial Limits of Authorised Expenditure for Criminal A&A –  References to the specific fixed fees have been removed due to the fee increase due to take effect on 26 April 2019.  The actual authorised expenditure limits do not need to be increased to accommodate this fee increase.

• Page 2 – Partners –  Additional text to clarify the situations where the resources of an applicant’s partner can be disregarded. This can be due to a contrary interest, living separate and apart, or where it might be inequitable or impracticable to aggregate the resources.
• Page 3 – Documentary evidence of client’s financial circumstances – Some additional guidance has been added about what to do when your client does not supply a bank statement.
• Page 6 – Disregards for applicants of a pensionable age – In some cases these disregards have been mistaken to be higher eligibility limits and applied to all applicants of a pensionable age. These disregards should only be applied to the calculation when the applicant is of a pensionable age and their disposable Income is less than £105 per week. We have included examples to show how to apply this disregard.

Please contact communications@slab.org.uk if you have any queries.