legal aid

[anon1968]

Hi Does anybody know if childrens tax credit counts towards whether you qualify legal aid, basically my husband is leaving and has advised me to see a solicitor as he is. I am employed full time and so will not qualify for wtc/until he actually does go, i am seeing a solicitor before this all starts as he wants us to agree finances and a seperation agreement etc
Any advice appreciated.

thanks

yes they will, they will use the figure you receive now as well as cb and your income. you do get allowanes for having dependents, paying the mortgage/rent and a working allowance of £45. they take your gross income minus tax, ni and your allwances and then you have to fall below the limit. (for the basic level of Legal Aid - Legal Help)

anon68 what are you planning to do re:house sale etc and other assets?
when i divorced my exh as i was working p/t i was apparently eligible for legal aid,but once the decree absolut was given i was told by my solicitor that 'the powers that be' wanted me to pay it back.
obv.as the family home wasn't isn't sold i now have a land registry charge hanging over my head!
incidentally this doesn't allow for my already low income at the time and non existant one now as i'm sadly unemployed
do hope it all works out ok for you but please be wary as legal aid isn't all it seems

mutt that's interesting to hear, i didn't pursue it as i thought that it might incur extra costs
i will def.raise it again once{fingers crossed}i can sell the family home
anon it just goes to show you what a farce mystery the whole thing is

it all depends what level of legal aid you get. if it goes to court and you get a public funding certificate then i think you pay it back. the legal aid system is always changing.

good side of it is that the hourly rate under legal aid tends to be about a third of a private rate for a solicitor.

hi, at the moment it is just to get our finances sorted, he is seeing a solicitor to make sure exactly what he has to give me, and wants me to see one too. At the mo, the plan is for me to stay in the house and he will pay half the mortgage until it is paid off in 8 yrs, or unless i ever setttle down again in which case i/we will apparently have to remortgage and pay him out that way, and he is paying child maintenance. The solicitors is for a seperation agreement, hopefully no court, just purely so we know where we stand.

I was just hoping t get legal aid as the last thing i need now is to be paying more out.

tax credits do count and really annoyingly!

if your income is more than 2600 a month beofre stoppages (wages, child benefit, all parts of tax credit etc) then they will turn you down straight away.

I applied earlier on this year and yes admittedly my income looks good on paper but at the time my childcare bill was hge so claimed a lot of tax credi for childcare. This was meant i was above the 2600 so they dont even look at your outgoings.
If they did they would have then seen that i was minus after all their allowances for diff stuff!