What are the cutoffs?

    Franklin,  Delaware, and Madison Counties – total gross household income falls at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines 

    All other Counties – total gross household income falls at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines

For a full chart for income cutoffs, please go to our chart here. 

Any household with income above 125% FPL (but below the thresholds mentioned above) must also have an ongoing expense, which can include rent, taxes, mortgage, unreimbursed medical expenses.

What does "income" include?

Income includes: all household income, including employment, welfare, social security, SSI, alimony, workers’ and unemployment comp, child support, disability, VA, pension or retirement.

Are there any exceptions to the income cutoffs?

No income cutoff for individuals whose benefits have been stopped

We can help most seniors regardless of income or assets (age 60+, unless being referred for a will or POA (200% FPL)) 

We can help clients with income up to 250% FPL with federal tax controversies

We can help people with income up to 200% FPL with bankruptcies, regardless of county.

We can help people facing foreclosures:

          In Franklin, Delaware, and Madison counties, we can provide assistance up to 300% FPL for foreclosures. 

          In all other LASCO counties, we can go up to 200% FPL for foreclosures.

This is complicated! We are here to help, so please reach out to our staff contact with any questions!

What are the asset limits?

Clients cannot own assets (such as cash, money in a bank account, property, and vehicles) in an amount greater than $15,000. 

For this purpose, we do not include the home they live in or vehicles they use for transportation. 

Clients must be citizens or meet certain non-citizen immigrant eligibility criteria. 

• Those with green cards or I-94s, including refugees and asylees, are eligible for services. 
• There are limited exceptions for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. 

When in doubt, please reach out to your LASCO staff contact.  Click here for more information on our immigrant eligibility.

Because we are a law firm, LASCO must make sure that we are conducting "conflict checks" when processing applicants for our services.

For example, we could not help someone with a custody case if we have already helped the other parent.

 If someone is turned away because they are a "conflict" we will not be able to provide details about what that conflict is. 

Due to limited resources, LASCO cannot directly help every low-income person with a legal need. As a result, we have to set "priorities" in order to help as many people as possible. 

For an overview, check out this short video on LASCO Client Eligibility and Priorities. Prefer to just review in writing? Click here for the slides.  

Below are common examples of times when we refer someone to a third party for help. 

A person's case is not a "priority." 

•  In those cases, they will likely be told about our community clinics, which are available on the LASCO calendar here, or be referred to other attorneys or organizations.
• Intake for a specific team or office is temporarily paused. For up-to-date information on intake pauses, see the Current Intake Updates box below. 

A person does not have a "current" legal issue. 

• While applying for public benefits is a need many patients face, this is not a legal issue, unless the application has been pending longer than the legal time limit. If a patient is denied* benefits or their benefits are being stopped or lowered, that is a legal issue we can help with. 
• Similarly, many patients struggle with finding safe and affordable housing – that, in and of itself, is not a legal issue.  

*One exception is SSI/SSDI applications and related appeals, as there are a lot of private attorneys who handle those cases. We can advise and/or represent on cases there isn’t a private market for, like terminations of benefits and overpayments. If you have patients who need advice on whether to apply, or ask for representation on the appeal of an application (which we highly recommend getting), please feel free to provide them this list of attorneys as a resource. 

We can also provide brochures, self-help information, or general legal information to anyone, regardless of eligibility. For brochures, pro se forms, and other self-help materials, go to our Resource Center.