Vol. 488 No. 5
110 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that child benefit is being assessed as income for free legal aid; if he will consider removing this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6562/98]
Under the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995 and regulations made under that Act, applicants for legal services are required to satisfy a test of financial eligibility. Accordingly legal services are available only to persons whose disposable income does not exceed £7,350. Disposable income is calculated by reference to any income which the applicant may reasonably expect to receive from all sources in the 12 months following the date of application, including: "benefits, allowances or pensions payable under the Social Welfare Acts, the Health Acts or the Redundancy Payments Acts", reduced by the aggregate of the allowances which can be offset against income. These allowances include £668 for each dependent child, an allowance in respect of expenses incurred on child care facilities in certain circumstances and other expenses such as the cost of travel to work, hire purchase payments, loan interest payments, rent, board and lodging etc.
In December 1997 the Legal Aid Board took a decision that child benefit should be excluded from income for the purpose of determining an applicant's financial eligibility. Accordingly, as and from 6 January 1998, child benefit has not been assessed as income by the Legal Aid Board when determining an applicant's eligibility for legal services under the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995. The need for an amendment to the civil legal aid regulations to reflect this change is receiving attention in my Department. My Department, in consultation with the Legal Aid Board, continually monitors the financial eligibility criteria and appropriate adjustments are made to the criteria from time to time, as necessary.
