Misión

It is important that supporting evidence is enclosed with the application form. Originals are not required – legible, certified photocopies are sufficient.

For all CRM16 applications, if some evidence has been provided, an assessment will be considered using this partial evidence. If the applicant wishes to have additional expenditure considered, for which evidence has not been provided, they must submit the evidence to NCT with a covering letter.

Note, for a Crown Court Eligibility Review the missing evidence must still be received within the 21 days from the original refusal (or from the refusal decision relating to a New Application Following Ineligibility).

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The contribution amount of £255 per month is the minimum contribution amount based on an applicant having a disposable income above the threshold of £3,398.00.

Applicants must complete all relevant sections on the application form except questions 8, 9 and 10, which must be completed by their instructed solicitor where applicable. The CRM16 form will indicate exactly which questions must be completed for magistrates’ court and crown court cases. Please see

Annex Q: Forms Guidance for full instructions on completing the form.

15.5.1 How to ensure that your client’s application for hardship/eligibility review is not

rejected

Whilst detailed guidance on completing form CRM16 and what evidence to provide in support of the application for hardship/eligibility review can be found in Annex Q: Forms Guidance, the following table highlights the common issues that result in NCT having to return the application for missing information or evidence.

Reject Reason Why this is needed

No or insufficient details of ‘Solicitors Costs’ For magistrates’court hardship and Crown Court eligibility reviews the solicitor must give a full breakdown of the cost details, including an itemised, hourly breakdown of what work will be done as this can be a deciding factor in whether the hardship is successful. At this stage, this can be estimated.

For Crown Court eligibility reviews this will include advocate costs.

No clear evidence of attempts to defer or reduce payments to creditors

For magistrates’court hardships the defendant must show that they have approached creditors for deferment/reduction of payments. We will accept letters from the individual creditors either refusing such a request or detailing dates of the period of deferment/reduction and how much they are expected to pay.

Not signed and dated by the solicitor and/or the defendant and their partner

In all cases we must have signed authority from all parties, agreeing to the declaration in the CRM16 form

No or insufficient evidence of extra expenditure For each and every item of extra expenditure that the defendant wishes to be taken into account, we must receive evidence in the form of the individual financial statements, bills, or finance agreements. For credit card obligations we must receive the individual credit card statement. For loans and other finance agreements we must receive the individual finance agreement in place.

Defendant has had a change in financial

circumstances since the original assessment (e.g. the defendant has become unemployed, changed jobs, become ill and is unable to work)

The defendant MUST complete a ‘Change of Circumstances’ application by completing a fresh CRM14 or CRM15 and providing evidence of the change. Any such changes will then be taken into account in a reassessment of the defendant’s means. We will still consider a Hardship Review in addition to the change of circumstances, but the changes MUST be put to us formally.

Hardship reviews will only be considered if they are submitted whilst the case is still ongoing (except for Appeals to Crown Court where the LAA will consider a hardship application following the issue of the Income Contribution Order).

Day to day living expenses, such as utility bills, insurance premiums and travel to work cannot be taken into consideration because they are factored into the cost of living allowance which is included as an outgoing in the Full Means Assessment. See above for examples of extra expenditure that can be considered.

All items of extra expenditure listed in a hardship review application will need to be evidenced by the defendant with the individual statements / bills / finance agreement from that specific creditor in order for them to be considered. We cannot accept bank statements alone, as evidence of the money that must be paid.

If a case is being heard in the magistrates’ court you must also ensure that:

The defendant has provided clear evidence that they have attempted to defer or reduce payments to each individual creditor. We cannot consider items of extra expenditure where deferment evidence has not been provided. See table above for acceptable evidence.

You complete in full the ‘Solicitor’s Costs’ section and provide a full cost breakdown.

Where ‘evidence of payment’ (in addition to the loan agreement) is indicated in Annex Q: Forms

Guidance acceptable evidence includes bank statements clearly showing payments made, or statements

of the loan/debt showing credits to the account. This should be recent evidence and should show payments made in the computation period.

15.5.2 Where to send your application

Applications for a Hardship Review or an Eligibility Review should be sent to the CAT dealing with the application, whether submitted at the same time as the initial application for legal aid or at a later date. The CAT will then refer the application to NCT together with CRM14, CRM15 and enclosures.