Getting help with divorce court fees
Regardless of how you decide to deal with your divorce, there are mandatory court fees of £550. But did you know that it’s possible to get help with divorce court fees? This article shows you how.
When it comes to divorce, you have three choices, to manage your divorce yourself, to use an expensive high street solicitor or to use an online divorce provider. In each case, HM Courts and Tribunals service charge £550 to process your divorce. These are not fees for you to attend court. These are the fees to pay for the court’s staff to process your divorce.
So even if you decide to handle your entire divorce process yourself, you will still be required to pay the court fee unless you are eligible for the ‘help with fees’ scheme.
You can apply for help with fees if you receive certain benefits or if you earn a low income.
Getting help paying divorce court fees
You might be able to get your court fee reduced, often to zero, if you have little or no savings, are on certain benefits or have a low income.
Whether you’re eligible depends on what savings you have, what benefits you’re on and your income.
Savings
You need to have less than £3,000 in savings and investments if you’re under 61.
Benefits
You need to be on a low income, or on one of the following benefits:
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support
- Universal Credit (and you earn less than £6,000 a year)
- Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit)
Income
If you’re not on any of those benefits, you need to earn less than £1,085 a month before tax if you’re single, or £1,245 if you have a partner.
You can earn an extra £245 on top of that for each child you have.
For example, if you have a partner and two children, you must earn less than £1,735 to be eligible for help with court fees.
Check if you can get help with fees
Many people feel trapped in a marriage because they think that they can’t afford to divorce. We speak to people daily who didn’t realise that they don’t have to pay for court fees.
You can check your eligibility on the government website. Or for a friendly voice call us on 020 4530 8101, and we can check your eligibly in minutes.
Once you a freed from the worry of court fees you can get a divorce for as little as £29 with Easy Online Divorce.
For more details on the cost of divorce, read our article here.