How we calculate your income and capital in a civil application

In your application for civil legal aid, we need to see evidence of your income and capital.

We also need to see information about your main outgoings, such as payment towards loans or payments for childcare.

Income

'Income' means anything that is paid to you. For example, earnings, benefits, pensions or bonuses.

Some benefits or credits are not taken into account when working out how much income you have.

It is important that you tell us about all benefits or credits you receive. Disposable income is your income after taking off allowances for outgoings such as rent, people who are dependent on you and other essential expenses.

You can have disposable income of up to £26,239 and still qualify.

Capital

'Capital' means anything you have of value, such as money in the bank or building society or any similar organisation, savings or investments or items of value such as premium bonds.

There is also a limit of £13,017 on your disposable capital.

We do not take into account the value of your main home but we do take into account the value of any other non-essential property such as second homes, caravans, jewellery (excluding wedding and engagement rings) and antiques.

There are some occasions when we do not take property into account when deciding how much capital you have.

For example, the property may be what your legal problem is about and it may not be clear who will own it at the end of the case.

This will only apply when transfer of ownership of the property is at issue in the case.

Your solicitor should discuss this with you or you can discuss it with our Financial Assessment Team on 0131 560 2164.