united-kingdom legal-aid
Does legal aid eligibility go by assets or net worth?
<p>Does eligibility for legal aid get determined by a financial threshold (seemingly £8000) for total positive assets, or net worth as in assets less liabilities/debts?</p>

<p>The reference to £8,000 suggests to me the question relates to civil, rather than criminal, legal aid in <a href="/questions/tagged/england-and-wales" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" rel="tag">england-and-wales</a> so, subject to a few exceptions, ...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>...an applicant will be eligible for civil legal aid where their monthly disposable income does not exceed £733 and their <strong>disposable capital does not exceed £8,000</strong>. <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/legal-aid-eligibility-and-universal-credit/supporting_documents/annexcsummaryofcurrentlegalaidfinancialeligibilityrules.pdf&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjUn7aKu9b5AhWQQcAKHS_2D5gQFnoECAwQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DXjH6rwfSTXXZLN8kclwo" rel="noreferrer"><em>Source</em></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Notwithstanding the exceptions and considerations to take in to account when calculating disposable capital, the starting point is ...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... the value of every resource of a capital nature belonging to the party on the date on which the application for remission is made, unless it is treated as income by this Order, or it is disregarded as excluded disposable capital. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2302/schedule/crossheading/disposable-capital-test/made" rel="noreferrer"><em>Source</em></a></p>
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