https://www.slab.org.uk/solicitors/other-resources/key-cards/criminal-keycard/
https://www.slab.org.uk/solicitors/other-resources/key-cards/criminal-keycard/
This Keycard sets out the various eligibility limits, contributions and disregards in Criminal advice and assistance and ABWOR in force from 7 April 2025.
During the course of this year there may be further updates and changes to this Keycard.
For more information on eligibility and contributions, please refer to the Legal Aid Guidance.
You can also download this keycard as a PDF.
Last updated: 7 April 2025
In this Keycard, the word “partner” means someone the applicant normally lives with as a couple, whether or not they are married and of the same or different sex.
The resources of the applicant’s spouse or partner must be included in the assessment of the applicant’s eligibility unless:
The definition of a child, for the purposes of assessment of disposable income and capital, given in the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996.
£1,716 maximum for eligibility
A person whose disposable capital exceeds the capital limit of £1,716 is not eligible for advice and assistance, whatever their disposable income or eligibility for a passport benefit.
Do not assume that an applicant has no capital when they are in receipt of benefits – in certain circumstances a person can have up to £16,000 in capital and still receive benefits
To calculate disposable capital, you should:
Capital means savings and anything else of value the client and their partner, if appropriate, own.
This excludes the client’s main residence and the value of any disputed assets.
Examples of capital include:
You should not include in capital:
In addition, you should not include any of the following payments and benefits as capital, but where benefits have been accumulated by your client as savings, they should then be assessed as capital in the normal way:
Standard allowances against capital are deductible for the following persons:
No allowances should be made for any children where the applicant receives Foster Care Allowance or Kinship Carers’ Allowance.
| For the first dependant | £335 |
| For the second such dependant | £200 |
| For each other such dependant | £100 |
Where the applicant or their partner is of pensionable age (60 or over in all cases), with a weekly disposable income (excluding investment income and any of the disregarded benefits listed above) below £105, you should disregard capital as follows:
| Weekly disposable income up to £10 | Disregard £25,000 |
| Weekly disposable income £11 – £22 | Disregard £20,000 |
| Weekly disposable income £23 – £34 | Disregard £15,000 |
| Weekly disposable income £35 – £46 | Disregard £10,000 |
| Weekly disposable income £47 – £105 | Disregard £5,000 |
Applicant of a pensionable age, with no dependents, capital of £21,500 and a weekly disposable income of £20 is entitled to a disregard of £20,000. This leaves them with Disposable Capital of £1500, which is below the eligibility limit of £1,716 so they are financially eligible for advice and assistance.
Applicant of pensionable age, with no dependents, capital of £25,000 and a weekly disposable income of £20 is entitled to a disregard of £20,000. This leaves them with Disposable Capital of £5,000 which exceeds the eligibility limit of £1,716 so they are not eligible for advice and assistance.
“Income” means the total income, from all sources, which the client and their partner received or became entitled to during or in respect of the seven days up to and including the date of the application.
A person whose disposable income exceeds the income limit of £245 a week is not eligible for advice and assistance, whatever their disposable capital, unless they receive a passport benefit (Income Support, an income-related employment and support allowance, income-based jobseeker’s allowance or Universal Credit).
To calculate eligibility on income, you should:
When calculating monthly income, multiply it by 12 and then divide by 52 to work out the weekly figure.
If the client or their partner receives a passport benefit:
they qualify automatically on income for advice and assistance and will not have to pay a contribution. However, you must still assess your client’s disposable capital.
We will verify a client’s receipt of one of the passporting benefits named above with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). To assist us in doing so, we have provided some information about what is required.
Our link with the DWP only checks the position with passport benefits. We are not able to check cases where the applicant is not in receipt of a passport benefit. You should obtain verification of non-passport benefits.
Always make sure that passport benefits are entered in the correct place to allow the automatic link to check these with the DWP. Do not enter these benefits as non-passport benefits as this will not be checked with the DWP. If this is entered incorrectly then we will ask you to confirm what verification you have seen.
You must include:
Various benefits which the client may receive are disregarded in the financial assessment.
You should not include any of the following payments:
Do not make an allowance for any child for whom Foster care or Kinship care allowance is paid.
You should deduct the following standard allowances from income:
| Partner living with the applicant. | £52.60 |
| Any dependant person, adult (other than partner) or Child, who is wholly or substantially maintained, being a member of the applicant’s household. Do not make an allowance for any child for whom Foster care or Kinship care allowance is paid. | £84.66 |
Deduct the actual maintenance paid for the last seven days, not the standard allowance, if:
| Disposable income range | Maximum contribution |
| Disposable income not exceeding £105 a week | £0 |
| Exceeding £105 but not exceeding £112 a week | £7 |
| Exceeding £112 but not exceeding £119 a week | £14 |
| Exceeding £119 but not exceeding £126 a week | £21 |
| Exceeding £126 but not exceeding £133 a week | £28 |
| Exceeding £133 but not exceeding £140 a week | £35 |
| Exceeding £140 but not exceeding £147 a week | £42 |
| Exceeding £147 but not exceeding £154 a week | £49 |
| Exceeding £154 but not exceeding £161 a week | £56 |
| Exceeding £161 but not exceeding £168 a week | £63 |
| Exceeding £168 but not exceeding £175 a week | £70 |
| Exceeding £175 but not exceeding £182 a week | £77 |
| Exceeding £182 but not exceeding £189 a week | £84 |
| Exceeding £189 but not exceeding £196 a week | £91 |
| Exceeding £196 but not exceeding £203 a week | £98 |
| Exceeding £203 but not exceeding £210 a week | £105 |
| Exceeding £210 but not exceeding £217 a week | £112 |
| Exceeding £217 but not exceeding £224 a week | £119 |
| Exceeding £224 but not exceeding £231 a week | £126 |
| Exceeding £231 but not exceeding £245 a week | £135 |
You are responsible for deciding if your clients are financially eligible for advice and assistance. You should refer to the regulations, this Keycard and the Advice and Assistance guidance on our website about assessing disposable income and capital.
If you apply the tests incorrectly, we can withhold or recover payments made to solicitors’ firms for work done under an incorrect grant of advice and assistance. Our guidance is designed to avoid the risk of making an incorrect grant.
Most clients should be able to give you documentary evidence of their financial position.
When arranging an initial meeting with you, the client should be asked to bring documentary evidence of their income and capital with the proof of identity you need to sign up new clients, whether legally aided or not.
This advice applies equally to repeat clients. It is not safe for you to assume that your client’s financial position has not changed since the last time you gave them advice.
It is expected that the following evidence is seen, and copies retained:
Keep a copy of the verification for the lifetime of the file, or details as to how you satisfied yourself that the client was eligible on your file so that it can be seen by a quality assurance peer reviewer or a SLAB compliance auditor.
In Legal Aid Online, the available options include ‘bank statement’ and ‘wage slip’. Only use the ‘Other’ option if the document you have seen is not listed.
Otherwise, it will delay your application because we need to check it.
Quite often we see ‘bank statements’ selected and then in the “Other” option something like “I have seen the client’s bank statement”. You don’t need to duplicate the information.
Where you have not seen a statement and you select the evidence option – “Applicant has signed online declaration form” – you should note in the file why it was not possible to see a statement(s) and what information your client gave about any capital savings they may have in those accounts.
The declaration is not to be used as an automatic substitute for seeing statements.
We appreciate that in some circumstances, clients may not have documentary evidence available when initially consulting a solicitor. For example:
Where they do not have access to documentary evidence, you may be satisfied from the limited information available that they are eligible and give them advice. However, this should be on agreement that they will provide the evidence at the earliest opportunity. You should obtain the verification before seeking an increase in authorised expenditure.
If the client doesn’t provide evidence you must show in your application that reasonable attempts have been made to contact them.
If the client is serving a sentence or on remand, and received no income during the previous seven days, you should enter their income as “Nil”, and at the question on how they are supported answer “Serving a sentence” or “On remand” as appropriate. However, you must be clear that they did not receive any income during this seven day period, especially if they are paid monthly. You must also ask them about any savings or other capital they could use to fund their case.
If you have been unable to see verification but have taken reasonable steps to obtain this, make sure you let us know about this. You should let us know what steps have been taken, such as the number of letters and/or phone calls at the question ‘If you have not been able to obtain financial verification for income, please explain how you were satisfied that you could grant advice and assistance and what reasonable steps you took or are taking to obtain this information’.
The following are examples of the steps you can take:
At least two attempts to obtain proof are normally considered reasonable.
For example, a verbal request followed by a request by email or two letters to the applicant would be sufficient.
If a request has been made, the applicant should be allowed at least 14 days to respond before a second request is intimated.
If your client tells you they have no income or capital, you should ask them why this is the case.
If they are not in custody or on remand, then why do they not have any income?
For example, have they applied for benefits, and these have not been awarded yet?
You need to be satisfied that there is a credible reason for having no income. In the online application, you must tell us:
If the applicant has a bank account, you should obtain a bank statement from the client to confirm the position. Again, if this is not provided by the client, make sure you tell us about the steps you have taken to obtain this.
Most of the population have bank accounts now, especially if they are earning wages or receiving benefits. If your client tells you that they don’t have a bank account, you should explore this further with them and ask them how they receive any wages or benefits payments they may receive.
You need to be satisfied that there is a credible reason for not having a bank account and you should note this on the application.
If the client has no capital, please do not say something like “cannot prove a nil”. Most applicants will have at least one bank account, especially if they own or rent their home, have any regular outgoings which are paid by standing order or direct debit or receive a salary or state benefits.
The balance(s) held in these accounts should be recorded in the application as capital savings. Where the account is a current account or the only account held by the applicant, the balance held in the account once all monthly standing orders and direct debits have deducted should be recorded. You can then select “Bank Statement” from the capital verification options as evidence seen.
Similarly, if your client tells you that they don’t have a bank account, you should ask them how they receive any wages or benefits payments they may receive.
If you are happy with the explanation you receive, you should record this as a note in your file. You should select ‘Other’ from the capital verification options and then provide information about how you satisfied yourself that your client does not have a bank account or any capital.
If your client tells you that they have no capital or savings and subsequently signs the declaration, you can use the signed declaration to verify that the applicant has no capital.
However, you can only state that you are relying on the signed declaration if your client has, in fact, signed the declaration.
If verification of capital is not available at the initial meeting, you should try to get this later.
You can then update us on what evidence you have seen, or in cases where you have been unable to obtain verification, the steps you have taken to obtain this by submitting a verification update.
Where your client has no capital, and you do not have a signed declaration, how you complete the online application will depend on whether she/he has a bank account.
Where there is a bank account, you should normally see a bank statement for the qualifying period to verify the capital position.
However, the following guidance should help you answer the online questions and submit the application where you have not seen verification, and you do not have a signed declaration.
I have seen the most recent evidence of the applicant’s capital – No
Awaiting Verification? Yes – submit the application and advise us later when verification is seen.
Awaiting Verification? No – add free text to explain why applicant cannot provide any verification. For example, if the client is in custody or in hospital, or you can explain the steps you have taken to get verification.
I have seen the most recent evidence of the applicant’s capital – No
Awaiting Verification? No – add free text to explain that the applicant has no bank account.
Where you are updating us on the verification you have now seen or advising what steps you have taken to obtain verification then you submit a verification update. Please do not send this information via an online message.
Further information on the declaration forms can be found in the Forms and Declarations section
For criminal advice and assistance and criminal ABWOR cases, the initial limits of expenditure can be £50, £115, £215, £250, £290, £385, £500, £600, or £750, depending on the type of criminal advice and assistance or ABWOR being used: