1. In this Schedule, unless the context otherwise requires:
“capital” means the amount or value of every resource of a capital nature;
“income” means the total income from all sources which the person concerned has received or may reasonably expect to receive in respect of the seven days up to and including the date of his application;
“partner” means a person with whom the person concerned lives as a couple, and includes a person with whom the person concerned is not currently living but from whom he is not living separate and apart;
“the person concerned” means the person whose disposable capital and disposable income are to be assessed;
“supplier” means the solicitor or firm of solicitors being requested to provide or providing funded services to the individual.
2. Any question arising under this Schedule shall be decided by the supplier to whom the individual has applied and that supplier, in deciding any such question, shall have regard to any guidance which may from time to time be given by the Commission as to the application of this Schedule.
3. The disposable capital and disposable income of the person concerned shall be the capital and income as assessed by the supplier after deducting any sums which are to be left out of account or for which allowance is to be made under the provisions of this Schedule.
4. Where the person concerned is a child, the resources of a parent, guardian or any other person who is responsible for maintaining him, or who usually contributes substantially to his maintenance, shall be treated as his resources, unless, having regard to all the circumstances including the age and resources of the child and any conflict of interest, it appears inequitable to do so.
5. If it appears to the supplier that the person concerned has, with intent to reduce the amount of his disposable capital or disposable income, whether for the purpose of making himself eligible for advice and assistance or otherwise:
(a)directly or indirectly deprived himself of any resources; or
(b)converted any part of his resources into resources which are to be left out of account wholly or partly
the resources of which he has so deprived himself or which he has so converted shall be treated as part of his resources or as not so converted as the case may be.
6.—(1) In calculating the capital and income of the person concerned, the resources of his partner shall be treated as his resources unless:
(a)the partner has a contrary interest in the matter in respect of which he is seeking advice and assistance; or
(b)in all the circumstances of the case it would be inequitable or impractical to do so.
(2) In calculating the capital and income of the person concerned, there shall be left out of account so much of any back to work bonus received under section 26 of the Jobseekers Act 1995(1) as is by virtue of that section to be treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance.
7. In calculating the capital of the person concerned:
(a)there shall be left out of account the value of his household furniture and effects, of his clothes and of tools and implements of his trade;
(b)the value of any interest in land shall be taken to be the amount for which that interest could be sold less the amount of any mortgage debt or hereditable security, subject to the following:
(i)in calculating the value of his interests, the total amount to be deducted in respect of all mortgage debts or hereditable securities shall not exceed £100,000;
(ii)in making the deductions in sub-paragraph (i), any mortgage debt or hereditable security in respect of the main or only dwelling shall be deducted last; and
(iii)the first £100,000 of the value of his interest (if any) in the main or only dwelling in which he resides, after the application of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii), shall be disregarded;
(c)where the person concerned resides in more than one dwelling, the supplier shall decide which is the main dwelling; and
(d)where the person concerned has living with him one or more of the following persons, namely, a partner whose resources are required to be aggregated with his, a dependent child or a dependent relative wholly or substantially maintained by him, a deduction shall be made of £335 in respect of the first person, £200 in respect of the second and £100 in respect of each further person.
8.—(1) In calculating the disposable income of the person concerned, there shall be left out of account:
(a)any income tax paid or payable on income treated under the provisions of this Schedule as his income;
(b)any contributions estimated to have been paid under Part I of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 during or in respect of the seven days up to and including the date of the application for advice and assistance;
(c)the following payments made under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992:
(i)disability living allowance;
(ii)attendance allowance paid under section 64(2) or Schedule 8 paragraphs 4 or 7(2);
(iii)constant attendance allowance paid under section 104 as an increase to a disablement pension; and
(iv)any payment made out of the social fund; and
(d)any payment made under the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996(3).
(2) Subject to sub-paragraph (3), in calculating the disposable income of the person concerned there shall be a deduction at or equivalent to the following rates (as they applied at the beginning of the period of calculation):
(a)in respect of the maintenance of his partner, the difference between the income support allowance for a couple both aged not less than 18 (which is specified in column 2 of paragraph 1(3)(c) of Schedule 2 to the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987(4), and the allowance for a single person aged not less than 25 (which is specified in column 2 of paragraph 1(1)(e) of that Schedule); and
(b)in respect of the maintenance of any dependant child or dependant relative of his, where such persons are members of his household:
(i)in the case of a dependant child or a dependant relative aged 15 or under at the beginning of the period of calculation, the amount specified at (a) in column 2 in paragraph 2(1) of the Schedule referred to in sub-paragraph (a); and
(ii)in the case of a dependant child or a dependant relative aged 16 or over at the beginning of the period of calculation, the amount specified at (b) in column 2 in paragraph 2(1) of that Schedule.
(3) The supplier may reduce any rate provided by virtue of paragraph (2) by taking into account the income and other resources of the dependant child or dependant relative to such extent as appears to him to be equitable.
(4) In ascertaining whether a child is a dependant child or whether a person is a dependant relative for the purposes of this paragraph, regard shall be had to their income and other resources.
9. If the person concerned is making bona fide payments for the maintenance of a former partner, a child or a relative who is not (in any such case) a member of his household, there shall be a deduction of such payment as was or will be made in respect of the seven days up to and including the date of the application for advice and assistance.
10. Where it appears to the supplier that there has been some error or mistake in the assessment of the disposable income or disposable capital of the person concerned, he may reassess the disposable income or disposable capital or, as the case may be, amend the assessment and in the latter case the amended assessment shall for all purposes be substituted for the original assessment.
Section 64(4) was inserted by section 66(1) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 (c. 30).