Income Support - When are you entitled?

Bossyboots

tiggs239 wrote: »

My friend currently works 22.5 hours a week and earns £5000 per year. She has maintenance payments of £250 per month + the usual tax credits etc. She is not entitled to legal aid as her income is too high. She needs legal representation as her ex partner is taking her to court over access to their son. She cannot afford to pay a solicitor, her G.P. is very keen to sign her off sick as she is suffering from depression but her employer does not pay sickness benefits. Does anyone know what benefits she would be entitled to if the G.P. did sign her off sick and whether she would then qualify for legal aid. Please feel free to move this post to another area if I have posted incorrectly.

There is a rule that you will not qualify for legal aid if you have deprived yourself of income solely for that purpose. However, in reality the LSC wouldn't know but she would need to see a different solicitor that didn't know her circumstances before. I wouldn't have thought being signed off sick would be queried though to be honest. It is vastly different from just giving up work. Once her income was low enough, she would qualify and would qualify automatically on income support (subject to the deliberate deprivation rule). However, once/if she went back to work, she would have to declare the change in income to the LSC and she may fall out of the qualification and have her legal aid terminated at that point.

charlie..._7

why is there no contact with the father? i think this is more important, children need and deserve two parents

emmald79

Probably because the Father only wants to be a Father when it suits him and not the Child. Then expects to walk into a childs life and take over and the courts usually allow this completley disregarding the childs welfare and undermining the Mother who has struggled alone for years.

astonsmummy

emmald79 wrote: »

Probably because the Father only wants to be a Father when it suits him and not the Child. Then expects to walk into a childs life and take over and the courts usually allow this completley disregarding the childs welfare and undermining the Mother who has struggled alone for years.