How we calculate your income and capital in a children's legal aid application

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

We also need to see information about your main outgoings, such as your mortgage or rent, council tax, 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 £222 per week and still qualify. In some circumstances you may still qualify for legal aid if your disposable income is over £222 due to the nature of your case.

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 £7,405 on your disposable capital. As with income, if your capital exceeds that amount you can sometimes still qualify depending on the nature of your case.

We do not take into account the value of your home that you live. We do take into account the value of any other property such as second homes (this could include the sole property you own but don't live in and rent out), caravans, jewellery (excluding wedding and engagement rings) and antiques.