Your Legal Aid Application – Self-Employed

DOCUMENTS NEEDED TO MAKE A LEGAL AID APPLICATION

Once you submit your online application for legal aid, a decision on your application will be provided within 7 working days. Do not contact Direct Mediation Services within this period.

What is self-employment?

• This is when you work for yourself and you are not employed
• Also remember if you are living with a new partner, we will need to make an assessment of their income
• Just because you get less than £2657 a month, you do not automatically qualify for Legal Aid
• Capital and savings will also be taken into account – if you have more than £8000 in savings, you will not qualify

Evidence

You need to send the following evidence for your Legal Aid application:

1. Business bank statements – the last four weeks’ If you have a personal bank account, you will need to provide this as well (See Photo A for an example.)
2. Complete financial accounts – for the last financial year ending 5^th April
3. Self-assessment tax return – submitted to HMRC following the end of the last tax year (See Photo B for an example.)
4. Cash book – this document records the money coming in and out of the business (See Photo C for an example.)
5. Self-employed for less than a year – your working cash book or a copy of your bank statements showing the money you pay yourself

There is only one way to submit your evidence – click the button below to start.

EXAMPLES OF EVIDENCE

Photo A – Bank statements

The easiest way to get your bank statements for the last four weeks is to go to your bank and ask them to print them out. If you have more than one bank and/or building society account, we need statements for all of these as well. This includes joint accounts

You may also be able to download them as a PDF

We need to see clearly:

1. The four edges of the page
2. Full pages
3. Your full name
4. Your full address
5. Account number
6. Period covering the last four weeks
7. Page number sequence 1, 2, 3 …

DO NOT SEND SCREENSHOTS OF YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNT FROM YOUR MOBILE

Photo B – HMRC Tax Return

We need to see clearly:

1. The four edges of the page
2. Full pages
3. Your full name
4. Your full address
5. Your national insurance number
6. Period for the last financial year
7. Page number sequence 1, 2, 3 …

DO NOT SEND SCREENSHOTS OF YOUR TAX RETURN FROM YOUR MOBILE

Photo C – Cash Book

We need to see clearly:

1. Record of transactions for the current financial year (April onwards)
2. This can be provided in Excel, PDF or a copy of a physical cash book