Advice and assistance calculator

Types of cases are

Children’s

Which pays for a solicitor to give advice about going to a children’s hearing or speak for a child in an appeal to a civil court.

Criminal

Pays for a solicitor to help if you are in trouble with the police and are going to appear before a criminal court

Civil

Pays for a solicitor to help you in a civil court with non-criminal matters - things like divorce or adoption or getting compensation after an accident.

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
• They are part of your legal problem or would be the opponent in your case
• It would be unreasonable or too difficult to do so – if so, you should speak to your solicitor.

You are entitled to an allowance of £38.45 for your partner.

Number of dependent adults and/or children

You are entitled to an allowance for each dependant. By a dependant, we mean a child, or a 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 £62.33.

Your net weekly income

This is the total income, from all sources, you and your partner receive or become entitled to in a week. If any payments are made monthly, multiply these by 12 and then divide by 52 to work out the weekly figure.

This includes:

• earnings (including any tips), drawings or profits from business
• maintenance payments (unless paid through the Child Support Agency)
• private or employee pensions
• occupational sick pay
• occupational maternity pay
• student grants or bursaries (but not student loans)
• National Asylum Support Service (NASS) payments
• money received from friends and relatives (other than loans)
• income from savings and investments
• dividends from shares

Do not include:

• Attendance Allowance
• Bereavement Allowance
• Bereavement Payment
• Child Benefit
• Child Maintenance Bonus
• Child Support Maintenance (paid through the Child Support Agency)
• Child Tax Credit
• Christmas Bonus
• Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Contributory Employment and Support Allowance
• Council Tax Benefit
• Disability Living Allowance
• Guardian’s Allowance
• Housing Benefit
• Incapacity Benefit
• Industrial Injuries Disablement Pension
• Invalid Care Allowance
• Pension Credit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Sickness benefit
• State Retirement Pension
• Statutory maternity pay (non-occupational)
• Statutory sick pay (non-occupational)
• Sums payable to holders of the Victoria Cross or George Cross
• War Disablement Pension
• War Widow’s or Widower’s Pension
• Widowed Parent’s Allowance
• Working Tax Credit

Maintenance payments

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

Your allowances

This is calculated from the number of dependants in section 2.

Total capital

Examples of capital include:

• the amount you could borrow against all land and buildings you or your partner own (but not including the home that you live in), including interests in timeshares
• money in the bank, building society, Post Office, premium bonds, national savings certificates etc
• investments, stocks and shares
• money that can be borrowed against insurance policies
• the value of any non-essential possessions, such as a boat, a caravan, second car, jewellery (but not wedding or engagement rings), antiques or items bought for investment purposes
• money that is owed to you or your partner
• money due from the will of someone who has died
• money due from a trust fund
• money that can be borrowed against business assets
• redundancy payments.

Do not include:

• the home you live in
• your household furniture and clothing
• tools and equipment you need for work
• the value of any property or item that is the subject of the dispute.

If you are a pensioner, you may qualify even if your capital is more than £1,716 – speak to your solicitor about this.