A paper has been submitted to the Legislative Council Panel on Administration of Justice & Legal Services proposing to raise the financial eligibility limit of legal aid applicants, the Home Affairs Bureau announced today.

People with financial resources below $175,800 can apply for legal aid to undertake litigation under the Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme, while those with financial resources above $175,800 but below $488,400 can apply for legal aid under the Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme, which was formed to meet the needs of the sandwich class, and operates on a self-financing basis to deal with specific case categories.

The bureau has completed a five-year review on the criteria for assessing the financial eligibility of legal aid applicants, and proposes to raise the financial eligibility limit for Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme by 50% to $260,000 and double that for the Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme to $1 million.

It proposed the personal allowance be set at a higher level, from the equivalent to 35% of household expenditure to the median household expenditure.

It also proposes to provide more disregard for legal aid applicants reaching the age of 65 by disregarding an amount of their savings which is equivalent to the level of the financial eligibility limit for Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme.