Dr Ben Christman

The concerns expressed in those articles over the bureaucracy of the legal aid system, the inadequate pay rates and legal aid deserts will be familiar to those working in the sector.

One problematic feature of the legal aid system which is less well-known is the low financial eligibility thresholds. Low thresholds mean that many people in Scotland are ineligible for legal aid but will likely struggle to pay privately for legal advice.

Advice and assistance civil legal aid – or A&A – can pay for written or oral legal advice and assistance. Access to high quality and timely legal advice is essential for ensuring access to justice and can help resolve disputes at an early stage.

To be eligible for A&A, a person’s disposable income and capital must be below certain thresholds.

An individual must have either a disposable income of less than £245 per week or be in receipt of certain means-tested social security benefits to qualify for A&A. To put that in context, the national minimum wage for those aged 21 and over is £11.44 per hour. £245 equates to someone paid at that rate working roughly 21 hours per week.

The low income threshold means that those working full-time in a minimum wage job are unlikely to be eligible for A&A.

The disposable capital limits are low too. A person must have “disposable capital” below £1,716 to qualify for A&A. Money advice agencies typically recommend keeping an ‘emergency fund’ to pay for three to six months of essential outgoings.

The thresholds were set in 2011 and have not been adjusted for inflation since then, meaning that they have been significantly reduced in real terms.

The A&A thresholds are set far below the levels at which an individual in need of legal advice will be able to afford to pay privately for a solicitor.

The Scottish government has the power to amend the thresholds. The Scottish Association of Law Centres (the national body for the not-for-profit legal sector in Scotland) has recently published a briefing calling for the financial thresholds to be reviewed and significantly increased. We look forward to discussing the need to change the thresholds with the Scottish government.

Dr Ben Christman is an in-house solicitor at the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (a member of the Scottish Association of Law Centres)