Getting the most from the calculator
What you will need
You will need to know your total income for the year, the number of children you are paying for in your care, whether you have a partner, the value of your house (see your rates bill) and mortgage, the value of your assets (possessions) and the value of your debts (money you owe).
Prepare the details of your income
If you have a partner, the income and assets of your partner are included as the income and assets of you, the applicant.
If you are working and know your hourly rate before tax, there is help in the calculator for you to work out your annual rate.
If you receive Family Tax Credits (paid from Work and Income if you are on a benefit or from IRD if you are working) and know your weekly rate before tax, there is help in the calculator for you to work out your annual rate i.e. for 52 weeks.
If you receive one of the main benefits from Work and Income and know your weekly rate before tax (also called the gross weekly rate) there is help in the calculator for you to work out the annual rate. You do not have to include ‘extra help’ from Work and Income such as Accommodation Supplement, Disability Allowance etc.
For details of what Work and Income assistance to include or not include, and information about other income sources to consider, see details on the Income Help page. You’ll also find links to more information about rates for Work and Income main benefits, Family Tax Credits and Student Allowances.
What you do
You’ll work through questions. If you need to tally up income from different sources, or convert weekly rates to annual rates, then you type data into some tables.
After you have finished
Remember, the calculation is an indication of your financial eligibility only. A full assessment would be done by us after you complete an application with help from a lawyer.
The following circumstances are not covered by this calculator:
Relationship property; jointly owned property where the ownership is shared with someone who is not your partner; property that is the subject of proceedings; income and equity in a business or trust; applications for people under 18 years old.
Also, if
- you tend to work for short periods of time and get income from many sources
- you have debt with a number of different agencies
- your circumstances have recently changed
then these questions may not get enough detail to work for you.
Assumptions
The calculator makes these assumptions, to keep things simple:
- We use a single tax rate of 19.5% which is deducted from your gross income. This may be different to your real tax rate.
- We assume that either a) your income will stay the same for the next year or b) you can enter all your income details for the past year.
- We assume your capital is disposable. This means that you can sell some of your assets to raise cash. However the Legal Services Agency may see that your assets cannot be sold and decide that legal aid should be granted.
Note that the calculator uses Javascript so if it isn’t working properly for you, you may need to change your computer settings or contact your system administrator.
