Our income

Our operating income is predominantly provided by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments and the Public Purpose Fund.

The Commonwealth Government, through the Council of Australian Governments’ National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services provided $45.8 million ($44.9 million in 2013–14). The Commonwealth provided supplementary funding of $1.2 million for expensive criminal cases. Direct grants for community legal centres are passed on directly by Victoria Legal Aid and thus are not recognised as income in our financial statements.

The state government provided $85.0 million ($83.0 million in 2013–14), including specific funds for the establishment of a state wide non-legal advocacy service, the weekend remand court, equal opportunity and family violence. Without these specific funds these services cannot be provided.

Funding from the Public Purpose Fund was $29.3 million of which $3.0 million was one-off funding. These one-off funds were received as restoration of indexation not received in 2012–13 and 2013–14. The remaining operating income was $5.2 million ($4.2 million 2013–14).

Income growth this year was 2.7% compared to 4.0% in 2013–14. The decreased growth is due to lower Commonwealth grants. In 2013–14 one-off funds of $3.5 million were received from the Commonwealth.

Income five-years

Source 2014–15
$000		 2013–14
$000		 2012–13
$000		 2011–12
$000		 2010–11
$000
Commonwealth grants 47,228 49,366 46,875 46,345 47,228
State grants 85,034 83,042 75,304 72,864 69,096
Public Purpose Fund 29,273 25,663 25,663 25,663 25,769
Client contributions 2,025 1,331 5,157 5,913 4,042
Other income 3,189 2,820 2,991 3,046 3,069
Total income from transactions 166,749 166,222 155,990 153,831 149,204
% income annual growth 2.7% 4.0% 1.4% 3.1% 8.5%

Our expenditure

Our total operating expenditure this year was $155.8 million, an increase of 6.0%.

Case-related payments totalled $63.6 million, an increase of 2.6%. These funds are paid to private practitioners, barristers, medical experts and interpreters, as well as to third parties for services rendered on in-house cases. The other major expense was staffing-related costs totalling $57.5 million, an increase of 5.8%. Staffing-related costs accounted for 37% of total operating expenditure.

Expenditure five-years

Source 2015–14
$000		 2013–14
$000		 2012–13
$000		 2011–12
$000		 2010–11
$000
Case-related payments 63,567 61,942 77,461 79,639 67,103
Community legal centre payments 15,481 13,335 12,855 12,367 11,527
Employee benefits 57,465 54,294 53,577 50,305 45,546
Depreciation and amortisation 2,936 2,812 3,304 2,737 2,403
Other administration 15,965 14,520 15,276 14,943 14,169
Total expenses from transactions 155,774 146,903 162,473 159,991 140,748
% expenditure annual growth 6.0% (9.6%) 1.6% 13.7% 6.9%

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