Government to relax criteria for legal aid applicants

The Chief Executive in Council has approved the government's plan to relax the criteria for assessing the financial eligibility of legal-aid applicants.

According to Hong Kong Information Services Department, this will enable more people to become financially eligible.

The Home Affairs Bureau said the legislative proposal will be tabled at the Legislative Council on February 28.

It is proposed the median monthly household expenditure be used to replace the 35-percentile household expenditure as a deductible component in calculating the disposable income of legal-aid applicants. An amount equivalent to the financial eligibility limit of the Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme will be disregarded from the savings of the elderly legal aid applicants who have reached the age of 60, irrespective of their employment status, when calculating their disposable capital. 

The financial eligibility limit of the Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme is proposed to be raised from the present $175,800 to $260,000 and financial eligibility limit for Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme is proposed to be raised to from $488,400 to $1.3 million.