Reporting suspected legal aid fraud

Completing the Report suspected legal aid fraud form

There are several different types of legal aid. Each have their own eligibility tests that an applicant must meet before this is granted. Our website provides more information on eligibility.

Legal aid is granted to those who are financially eligible, including those who are in employment. There is a misunderstanding that an applicant who is working should not qualify for legal aid; this is incorrect.

Legal aid is not always free and eligible applicants who can afford to are asked to pay a financial contribution towards their legal costs.

In some situations, an applicant is automatically financially eligible for legal aid because they are in receipt of certain benefits. If you believe an applicant should not be receiving benefits, you should also consider reporting this direct to The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

An applicant for legal aid must tell us accurate information about their financial circumstances, including any changes which may happen while they are in receipt of legal aid. Changes we’d expect to be reported can include:

moving in with a partner
adjustments in your benefits and/or employment
receiving an inheritance.

If you suspect an individual in receipt of legal aid has not told us about something which may affect their financial eligibility you should let us know. The easiest way to do this is by using the form below and completing as many of the fields as you can.

Do not worry if you can’t answer all the questions. We will treat the information you give us confidentially. You do not have to give us your name or contact details but you can if you wish.

Please only use this form to tell us about a legal aid applicant’s financial circumstances. If you have information about the legal merits of the court case or want to tell us something about a legal aid solicitor, do not use this form.

Strict rules of confidentiality contained in our legislation prevents us from telling you what is contained in an individual’s application and what action has been taken on the information you send us.

In reporting a suspected legal aid fraud, we assume you give us consent to use the information contained in our enquiries, including telling the applicant why we are looking at their financial circumstances. We will not disclose the source of this information without your consent and can treat as anonymous, if this is your preference.

In some situations, we won’t be able to:

tell you whether legal aid has been applied for
reply to you.

Don’t assume that we have not acted on your information when you do not hear from us.

An acknowledgement message will be sent to you on submission of the below form, confirming this has been passed to Assurance, who will consider whether any action is needed.

Unless you have new information, please do not make multiple submissions using this form, as this can slow down any investigation process.

If you provide any duplicate information, unless there is good reason to, we will not consider it. This is because it is unlikely to change the result of any previous enquiries we have carried out.

If you would prefer to report suspected legal aid fraud by telephone, please call our Assurance team on 0131 560 2108. Someone will be available to speak to you Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

You can also write to us at: Assurance, SLAB, Thistle House, 91 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5HE or email us at assurance@slab.org.uk.

FORM: Report suspected legal aid fraud

"*" indicates required fields

Section 1: About the Applicant

Who are you providing information about?

Their name*

First Last

Any other names they use or are known by

Their address

Street Address Address Line 2 City ZIP / Postal Code

Their date of birth or age (if known)

Section 2: Income

Is there income you believe the applicant has not told us about?

Yes

Section 3: Partner

Does the applicant have a partner?

Yes

What is the surname of the partner?

Their forename(s)

Any other names they are known by

What is their date of birth or age?

Does the partner work?

Yes

Section 4: Savings and Investments

Does the applicant have savings, investments or property?

Yes

What amount of savings do you think the applicant has not told us about?

Where does the applicant keep these savings? For example the name and address of the bank or building society or other financial institution

Section 5: About You

Your name

First Last

Your address

Street Address Address Line 2 City ZIP / Postal Code

Phone number

0 of 16 max characters

Important information about the data you are submitting

The Scottish Legal Aid Board is a data controller. The information provided by you will be used in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 and for our functions under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986.

By submitting this information you are giving us permission to use the information you have provided about the assisted person to investigate whether they are receiving legal aid fraudulently. To do this we may need to contact them to verify some of this information. We may also check the data you have submitted with certain third parties (for example, some government departments and agencies), or give information to them.

We will store the personal contact data, if you have provided any, and may contact you for more information. However we will not pass on your personal information to anyone else unless the law requires us to do so.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 you have the right to make a formal request in writing to see the personal information we hold about you, to inspect it and to have it corrected if it is wrong. In addition you may also have rights to have your data erased or have your data moved. You may be able to object to processing if you believe it to be unlawful and subject to lawful restrictions.