Legal Aid US: Financial Eligibility Calculator Form

Legal Aid organizations using Clio Grow can use the financial eligibility calculator to determine if prospective clients are eligible for legal aid services. Depending on the requirements of the grants that fund your organization, you can include financial details about income, expenses, and assets, and determine eligibility based on the poverty line level set by the United States (US) government. Once the calculator is set up in your settings, add the calculator as a block to an intake form and send it to potential clients to complete.

Set up and edit financial eligibility calculator

The financial eligibility calculator allows you to collect financial information from prospective clients to determine their financial eligibility for legal aid. You can enable or disable certain sections depending on the requirements of the grants that fund your organization. You can add the final form as a single block to a new intake form or append it to an existing intake form for prospective clients to complete. Clio Grow will automatically calculate the poverty line percentage and net poverty line percentage for you once the form is submitted. 

1. In Clio Grow, go to Settings > Forms.
2. In the Form layout and content section, toggle the sections your organization needs to include on and those you don't want to include off. The sections you enable will depend on the grants that fund your organization.
   • Household: This subsection will ask your prospective client to enter how many adults and dependents live in their household. 
   • Income: This subsection will ask your prospective client about their income, including the type of income, how often the income is received, and the amount. For the Income type field, a list with common options is available which can be edited as needed. Step five provides information about how to add income types. 
   • Expenses: This subsection will ask your prospective client to provide information about their expenses, including the expense types, how often they pay each expense, and the expense amount. For the Expenses type field, a list of common expenses is provided which can be edited as needed. Step six provides information about how to add expense types. 
   • Assets: This subsection will ask your prospective client to provide information about their assets, including the asset types and the value of each asset. For the Assets type field, a list of common options is provided which can be edited as needed. Step seven provides information about how to add asset types. 
3. In the same section (Form layout and content), enter a custom description for Income, Expenses, and/or Assets. Each subsection includes a placeholder description that you can modify for your organization.
   • Your prospective clients will see what you enter under the Description field, and they will be able to add and delete items from each dropdown list. Be sure to write a thorough description of what you want prospective clients to enter.
4. In the Poverty guideline section, check the box under Show in calculations for each US geographical area that you want to include in the poverty line percentage calculations. These amounts are determined by the US government. 
5. In the Income types section, click New income to add a new income type to the form.
   • The income types that you add here will appear in a dropdown list for a prospective client to select when they enter their household income. 
   • Once you add a new income type, you will be presented with the existing list where you can then use the Edit option to update or delete existing list items.
6. In the Expense types section, click New expense to add a new expense type to the form.
   • The expense types that you add here will appear in a dropdown list for a prospective client to select when they enter their household expenses. 
   • Once you add a new expense type, you will be presented with the existing list where you can then use the Edit option to update or delete existing list items. 
7. In the Asset types section, click New asset to add a new asset type to the form.
   • The asset types that you add here will appear in a dropdown list for a prospective client to select when they enter their household assets. 
   • Once you add an asset type, you will be presented with the existing list where you can then use the Edit option to update or delete existing list items. 
8. Click Preview form template at the top of the page (next to Form layout and content) to preview what the form will look like for your prospective clients. 
   
   Note: The poverty line percentage calculations will not be visible on any external forms. You can only view the calculations when completing the form internally.

Add financial eligibility calculator to intake forms

Once an administrator for your organization's account enables and sets up the required sections of the financial eligibility calculator, any user on the account can then add the enabled sections as a block to an intake form. The calculator will be pinned to the top of the forms list and can be completed as a standalone form by itself, allowing you to easily intake prospective clients in person.

1. Go to Forms > Templates.
2. Create a new intake form, edit an existing intake form, or complete the standalone calculator form. Learn more about creating and editing intake forms here.
   • The standalone calculator form will be pinned to the top of the forms list with a Calculator pill indicating that it is the financial eligibility calculator.
3. Once in the form builder, check the box next to Eligibility calculator, under the Financial section, to append the enabled financial eligibility calculator sections to the bottom of this intake form.
4. Send the intake form with the financial eligibility calculator to your prospective client. Learn more about sending intake forms here.
   • Once your prospective client completes and submits the form, Clio Grow will automatically calculate the required poverty line percentages. 

View poverty scale on matters

Once a prospective client completes an intake form containing the enabled financial eligibility calculator sections, their matter card will show a new Poverty scale card. This card provides key information related to their household size, poverty line and net poverty line percentages, income, expenses, and assets. You can view the card when viewing the matter.

1. Go to Matters and find the matter. You can also search for the matter using the search bar.
2. Once in the matter, scroll down to the Poverty scale card. This card will appear below the Matter Details and Contacts cards. 
   • If a client's income changes or if the intake form needs to be completed again, the poverty scale card will show the new information along with the old information, with a date stamp.