By the eLitigant Editorial Team · Reviewed for current forms, fees & procedure — August 2026
Where money claims are filed: the official portal is www.moneyclaims.service.gov.uk — HMCTS’s own Money Claims service. It is new (still badged beta), and following the 181st Practice Direction update there is no upper limit on the amount you can claim through it — and if you qualify for Help with Fees, the issue fee itself can be reduced to zero, whatever the size of the claim. New to the portal? Read our step-by-step walkthrough.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · For use in England & Wales.
What Help with Fees is
Help with Fees (HWF) is HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s official fee remission scheme. It is not a loan and not means-tested by us or anyone private — it is the court’s own system for making sure a court fee never stands between a person and their claim. Depending on your income, savings and benefits, the fee is waived in full or reduced. You can apply online in minutes, or on paper using form EX160. Our step-by-step guide to the application itself is here: how to apply for Help with Fees.
Who qualifies
Broadly, two doors in: you receive a qualifying benefit (such as income-based benefits or the guarantee element of Pension Credit), or your income and savings fall below the scheme’s thresholds. The thresholds are updated by HMCTS, so check the current figures on the official page rather than relying on any article’s numbers — including ours. If you are unsure, court staff and Citizens Advice can help you with the application free of charge.
How it fits your money claim, step by step
- Send a letter before claim first. Prevention is better than cure — the courts expect it, and a well-drafted letter often gets you paid with no fee at all. Start with our letter before claim guide.
- Apply for Help with Fees at the official page and note your reference number.
- Start your claim at GOV.UK — make a court claim for money, signing in with an HMCTS account.
- Enter your Help with Fees reference when the service asks about the fee — this happens before any payment is taken. If your application covers the whole fee, you pay nothing; if it covers part, you pay the balance.
- Repeat for later fees. Each court fee — issue, hearing and so on — has its own Help with Fees application, so keep applying as your case progresses.
Help with Fees is optional at every step: you can always choose to pay the fee and continue without it — and if you win, the court normally orders the defendant to repay the fees you paid on top of what they owe you.
No upper limit — the fact most guides still get wrong
Many articles — including some written by law firms — still say online money claims are capped at £25,000. That is out of date. The cap was removed from Practice Direction 51R by the 181st CPR Practice Direction Update, in force 27 February 2025, which omitted the words “not exceeding £25,000 including interest” from the eligibility condition. There is no upper limit on the value of a specified money claim you can issue online; the £25,000 figure now matters only to how the court manages the case afterwards. Full detail in our OCMC and PD 51R guide.
Doing it with Chris
Chris drafts what the portal asks for — your reason for claim, timeline of events, evidence list and interest wording — to a professional standard, in minutes rather than hours. You then sign in to the official service and copy each answer across, question by question; the portal turns your answers into the issued claim and its PDF, ready to check and submit. Chris will also remind you to check Help with Fees before the payment step. Draft my claim with Chris →
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The Money Claim Series: This guide is one chapter of the series. Start at the hub — Make a Money Claim Yourself: the complete guide — then go deeper: make a money claim online (OCMC) · the step-by-step walkthrough of every screen · OCMC vs County Court: which route to use · what happens after you file · how OCMC replaced the paper N1.