Legal Aid Agency
Overview
Means testing to assess financial eligibility is one aspect of determining if someone qualifies for civil legal aid. The means test is set out within Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013.
Before you complete the means test you should check if your clients case is within scope as set out in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO).
The application process depends on the level of help that your application covers. The rules differ for controlled work and licensed work.
Controlled work and family mediation
You must assess a clients income and capital for controlled work and family mediation including:
- legal help
- help at court
- family help (lower)
- family mediation
- legal representation for proceedings in the immigration and asylum tribunal of the first-tier tribunal or where transitional arrangements apply
Licensed work
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) assesses a clients income and capital for license work including:
- family help (higher)
- legal representation (other than controlled legal representation, see above)
- other legal services (exceptional cases)
Assets
If a client has an interest in assets that are in dispute, the value of the clients assets exceeding 100k should be included in your financial eligibility check. See Regulation 38 in the 2013 Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations.
Evidence
Keep copies of the original documents that confirm your clients financial circumstances.
To ensure you collect the correct evidence from the client you should refer to the appropriate form as follows:
Controlled work and family mediation
If you cant find evidence of means for controlled work and family mediation cases, make sure your client is covered by one of the reasons in paragraph 3.24 of the standard civil contract 2013 specification.
Licensed work
- CIV MEANS 1 initial assessment and further assessment
- CIV MEANS 2 assessments for people who receive named benefits
- CIV MEANS 3 assessments for people whose main home is outside the UK
- CIV MEANS 4 for child clients under 16 with less than 2,500 capital and no regular income
- CIV MEANS 5 to record an increase in capital
Passporting
If a client receives certain benefits theyre passported through the income means test, so they automatically qualify within the income limits but you must still assess their capital.
Passporting benefits include:
- Income Support (IS)
- income-based Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)
- Universal Credit (UC)
- Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit (GC)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
You must assess capital means in all cases. However, if your client receives financial support under sections 4 or 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 from the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), theyre passported through both income and capital tests for controlled work immigration and asylum matters only.
Eligibility limits
Gross income limit
Your clients gross monthly income should be 2,657 or less. If they have more than 4 child dependants, add 222 to this figure for the fifth child and each further child.