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Help with Fees for a small claim

Help with Fees is the scheme that pays some or all of a court fee for people on low incomes with little in savings. This guide sets out the three tests, the partial remission bands and how to apply for a small claim.

Checked against official sources on 30 September 2026. Court fees from 13 July 2026; enforcement agent fees from 1 May 2026.

What Help with Fees covers

Help with Fees (sometimes called fee remission) is the scheme under Schedule 2 to the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008 that allows a court fee to be waived in full or in part for people who pass a savings test and either a benefits test or an income test. It applies to every fee in a small claim: the issue fee (£35 to £455 for claims up to £10,000), the hearing fee (£27 to £346), application fees such as the £126 or £321 fee for an N244, and the enforcement fees you pay after judgment. See court fees for the full tables.

The current thresholds were set on 27 November 2023 and have not been uprated since. They apply to the person paying the fee, so a claimant applies for their own fees and a defendant applies for theirs. If you have a partner, their savings and income are counted with yours.

Test 1: savings and other capital

The first hurdle is disposable capital. This means savings and investments, including bonds, stocks and shares, and the value of any land or property other than your main home. A vehicle is ignored if selling it would leave you without motor transport. Your partner’s capital counts as yours.

Because the largest small claims fee is £455 for issue and £346 for a hearing, every small claims fee falls in the first row. In practice, then, the savings limit for a small claim is £4,250, or £16,000 if you or your partner are 66 or over. If you fail this test you pay the full fee, whatever your income.

Test 2: benefits that passport you through

If you pass the savings test and receive one of the following benefits, you pay no fee at all:

• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance;
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance;
• Income Support;
• Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit); or
• Universal Credit, provided your additional gross annual earnings are less than £6,000.

Contribution-based JSA and ESA, and the new-style versions of those benefits, are not on the list, so a person receiving them is assessed under the income test instead.

Test 3: gross monthly income

If you pass the savings test but do not receive a passporting benefit, the court looks at your gross monthly income. Gross means before tax and National Insurance. The figure used is the lower of last month’s gross earnings or the average of the last three months, plus any other income received last month. Some benefits are excluded from the calculation, including Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit and the housing, childcare, carer and disability elements of Universal Credit. Your partner’s income counts as yours.

The gov.uk example is a person with a partner and two children aged 7 and 5, whose threshold is £2,980 a month (£2,130 plus £425 plus £425).

Partial remission if you are over the threshold

Income above your threshold is called excess income, and you are asked to contribute part of it towards the fee:

• 50% of the first £1,000 of excess income;
• 70% of the next £1,000 (excess of £1,001 to £2,000); and
• 90% of the next £1,000 (excess of £2,001 to £3,000).

Your contribution is capped at the fee itself, and no help is available at all once your income exceeds your threshold by more than £3,000. For example, a single claimant with no children earning £2,000 a month gross has £580 of excess income and would contribute £290. On a £455 issue fee that leaves £165 to be remitted; on a £115 fee it means paying the fee in full. Because small claims fees are modest, partial remission usually only makes a difference where income is a few hundred pounds above the threshold. The interest and fee calculator shows the fee your claim value attracts.

How to apply

There are two routes, and it matters which one you choose because it determines how you can issue the claim.

1. Online (helpwithcourtfees.service.gov.uk). Apply before you start the claim. You are given a reference in the format HWF-XXX-XXX. Enter it when you issue through Online Civil Money Claims (the gov.uk ‘Make a money claim’ service), or write it on a paper form. The reference must reach the court within 28 days of the application; if it arrives later it may be rejected and you will need to apply again.
2. On paper (form EX160). The current version is dated 19 January 2026. If you apply on paper you must issue on paper too: send the completed EX160 with your claim form N1 to the Civil National Business Centre, St Katharine’s House, 21–27 St Katharine’s Street, Northampton NN1 2LH. Help with using the service is available from We Are Group on 03300 160 051.

Two points on the online claim services. Online Civil Money Claims accepts Help with Fees applications from unrepresented claimants (PD 51R para 2A.1). Money Claim Online does not: PD 7C para 3.3 says a claimant who wishes to apply for remission or part remission of fees must not use it, and the MCOL welcome page repeats the point. If you need Help with Fees and your claim is within the online service’s limits, use Online Civil Money Claims; otherwise use the paper N1. See where and how to issue a claim.

One application per fee, and refunds

Each fee needs its own application. Help with the issue fee does not carry over to the hearing fee, an N244 application fee or a warrant fee, so expect to apply again at each stage. The hearing fee deserves particular attention: it is normally due 28 days before the hearing, and if a Help with Fees application is refused the fee becomes payable within 7 days of the refusal notice or 28 days before the trial, whichever is later. Applying as soon as the hearing notice arrives avoids a scramble.

If you paid a fee when you would have qualified, you can apply for a refund provided you paid it within the last 3 months and were eligible at the time. The same online service and EX160 form are used.

A timing warning for online claims near a limitation deadline

In Online Civil Money Claims a claim is treated as brought, for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980, at the point it is issued and not before (PD 51R para 4.3(7)). Where the claimant has applied for Help with Fees, the claim is issued only once the fee has been remitted (para 4.3(1A)). If the six-year limitation period is close to expiring, that processing gap could matter. Many claimants in that position apply for Help with Fees well in advance, or issue on paper, where the claim is brought on the date the court receives the form (PD 7A para 6.1). See time limits.

If you are unsure whether a claim is worth issuing at all once fees and the prospects of recovery are taken into account, see is it worth suing?, or ask ClaimsBot about your own figures.

Sources

• Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008, Schedule 2 (fee remissions) – legislation.gov.uk
• Get help with court fees – gov.uk
• How to apply for help with fees (EX160A) – gov.uk
• Apply for help with court and tribunal fees (form EX160) – gov.uk
• Make a court claim for money: court fees – gov.uk
• Practice Direction 7C – Money Claim Online (para 3.3)
• Practice Direction 51R – Online Civil Money Claims Pilot