Court fees on a money claim and the Help with Fees scheme

Checked 22 July 2026 · How we check our figures

Jump to: The decision · What next · Numbers · Deadlines · Mistakes

What it is

The court fee on a money claim is the price of starting: fee 1.1 of the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008 scales with the amount claimed, and a second fee, the trial fee, waits further down the track. What most people search as the cost of suing someone is, for many claimants, not payable at all, because Schedule 2 of the same Order carries the Help with Fees scheme: a capital test, an income test and a shortcut for passporting benefits. The fee table sets the bill, the remission scheme decides who pays it, and the court fees calculator works both together.

Reading the notice

The issue fee follows the amount claimed, and interest claimed counts into the amount that sets the band, fee 1.1 CPFO Sch 1

One scale applies to the claim however it is issued; the bands and the cap sit in the court fees calculator

Help with Fees is its own application, on form EX160 or online, and it is decided on the position at the time the fee would otherwise be payable, Sch 2

The decision in front of you

Paying the fee as billed issues the claim; the trial fee 2.1 then falls due when the court fixes a trial date or trial period, Sch 1

Applying for Help with Fees first can remove or shrink the fee: a passporting benefit plus a passed capital test means no fee at all, Sch 2 para 11A, and otherwise the income test with its child add-ons decides between full remission, part remission and none, paras 11 and 12

For a fee already paid there is a refund application under Sch 2 para 17, with its own window in the form guidance

Doing nothing has its own clock: the fee is only the gate, and the Limitation Act 1980 keeps running against the underlying claim while nothing is issued

What happens next

A granted application takes the fee to nil or to a reduced figure, and any balance is paid on the directions in Sch 1

A refusal leaves the fee due as directed, and the claim does not issue until it is paid

Fees paid can later come back from the losing side as costs, but that is the court's discretion, not a right

The thresholds of the scheme are uprated by order, so the current lines live in the calculator, not here

The numbers

The issue fee bands, the trial fee and every Help with Fees threshold are movable: see the court fees calculator at /fines/court-fees, figures dated there

No remission where gross monthly income exceeds the applicable threshold plus 3,000 pounds (Sch 2 para 12 CPFO, as amended by SI 2023/1094; legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-07-22)

The income threshold rises by 425 pounds per child aged 13 or under and 710 pounds per child aged 14 or over (Sch 2 para 11)

The deadlines

A remission application describes the position at the time the fee would otherwise be payable, Sch 2 paras 11 and 11A, which is why the application usually comes before the payment

The refund route for fees already paid runs on its own application window, Sch 2 para 17

The trial fee 2.1 falls due on the court fixing a trial date or trial period, Sch 1

What people get wrong

Paying first and asking later: remission is judged at the time the fee would otherwise be payable, and once paid the money only moves again on a para 17 refund application

Reading the band from the debt alone: interest claimed counts into the amount that sets the fee, Sch 1

Treating the issue fee as the whole bill: the trial fee 2.1 lands when the court fixes the trial date, and a settled case does not automatically bring it back

Authority

Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008, SI 2008/1053, Sch 1 fees 1.1 and 2.1

Sch 2 Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008, as amended by SI 2023/1094

gov.uk, Help with Fees, forms EX160 and EX50