H wants to cash in ISA, but I am receiving legal aid. Would it affect it?

[messyoldmess]

I am in the process of seperating from my husband & have been told that I qualify for legal aid.
We have around £13,000 in an ISA, which H is now very keen to cash in, but I am unsure as to whether having my half of this money will go against me re the legal aid that I have been told I am entitled to.
I have made an appt to see my solicitor, but the soonest they can fit me in is the 30th of this month.
My solicitor knows that there is money in an ISA, but we have only recently found out how much.
Should I try & stop H cashing it in yet?
They asked a lot about savings when I filled out the form & I am not sure whether cashing this ISA in is a good idea right at this moment in time.

I think there are two different types of ISA. Ours is a maxi one, whatever that means!
I am totally confused by it all!

Yes there are two different types - mini or maxi - it affects how much money you can invest

have a look at this

Thanks, TheBlonde.
I am really not at all clued up about all this!

messyoldmess - you might find this book gives you some useful information to help you manage your finances on your own.

Also Confirmation that ISAs cannot be held in joint names. Whatever this is, it isn't an ISA. Or if it is, it's in your sole name?

Thanks for the links, tribpot. The book looks very handy!
Very very confused about the whole ISA thing!!

If it's a "home plan" was this an inestment taken out to help repay capital on your mortgage? If so you may have a joint "home plan" account, which contains ISA's which are in yoru sole name, but would need both signatures to liquidate any assets within your home plan.

And an ISA is merely a tax free "wrapper" that a number of different investemts can be held in. If it's a cash ISA you cannot lose your invested capital, if he's saying it might go down it is likely to be a stocks and shares ISA. In fact, if its a maxi than it has to be a stocks and shares ISA. And probably invested in the UK (just becaise majority are) in which case now would definately be a bad time to disinvest as the FTSE hit a new high today and is only predicted by experts to go higher over teh next few weeks

Thanks for that info, Prufrock.
Yes it was an investment taken out to help repay capital on our mortgage.
It definitely sounds a wise idea to leave the ISA well alone for the moment!