The divorce fee in England and Wales is £628, the court fee payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service when an application for a divorce, dissolution of a civil partnership or nullity is filed. GOV.UK states: “There’s a £628 fee to apply for a divorce.”[1][2] The figure is fee 1.2 in Schedule 1 to the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008, as increased from £612 by the Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026 with effect from 6 July 2026, and is shown in the HMCTS fee list EX50 updated on 13 July 2026.[3][4][5] The same fee applies whether the application is made by one spouse or jointly, online or on paper, and it is not refunded once the application has been issued.[1]
The fee pays for the divorce itself and nothing else. Making a financial agreement binding by a consent order costs a further £62, and asking the court to decide finances on a contested application costs £321 (both from 13 July 2026).[5][6][7] People on low incomes or qualifying benefits can have the fee remitted in full or in part under the Help with Fees scheme; from 27 November 2023 the full remission thresholds are gross monthly income of £1,420 for a single person and £2,130 for a couple, plus allowances for children, with savings of under £4,250.[8][9] Legal costs are separate and vary from nothing, for a couple who complete the online application themselves, to many thousands of pounds where finances are disputed.[10]
Definition and purpose
Court fees are charges set by the Lord Chancellor for the use of the courts. In family proceedings they are prescribed by the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008, a statutory instrument amended most years, and the current figures are published by HMCTS in the leaflet EX50.[3][5] The divorce fee is the fee “on filing an application for a divorce, nullity or civil partnership dissolution”, fee 1.2.[5] It is paid when the application is submitted, online through the digital divorce service or by post with paper form D8, and is a condition of the application being issued.[1]
The fee is distinct from the cost of legal advice, the cost of mediation, and the separate court fees for financial orders. Public discussion of “the cost of a divorce” usually conflates these; this article separates them. The fees payable in children proceedings and other family applications, and the mechanics of paying, are on Family Court Wiki’s page on family court fees.
Legal basis
Fees are set under powers in the Courts Act 2003 and are contained in Schedule 1 to the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 (SI 2008/1054), which revoked and consolidated the 2004 order and came into force on 1 May 2008.[3] The divorce fee was raised from £550 to £593 by the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2021 from 30 September 2021, and from £612 to £628 by the Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, made on 11 June 2026 and in force from 6 July 2026; the same 2026 order raised the contested financial order fee from £313 to £321 and Children Act application fees from £263 to £270.[11][4] The Help with Fees scheme is in Schedule 2 to the 2008 order, as substituted by the Courts and Tribunals (Fee Remissions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2023 from 27 November 2023.[9][3]
No fee is payable for an application for a non-molestation order or an occupation order under Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996, nor for a domestic abuse protection order.[3] That exemption is written into the order itself and does not depend on Help with Fees.
The £628 application fee
The fee to apply for a divorce, dissolution or nullity in England and Wales is £628 (fee 1.2, EX50 updated 13 July 2026; in force from 6 July 2026).[5][4] It is paid once per application, not per person. In a joint application the applicants decide between themselves who pays; if both want Help with Fees, GOV.UK states that “you must both apply for help”, and if one does not qualify the whole fee is payable.[1] An online applicant pays by card when submitting; a paper applicant sends payment with form D8. The fee “will not be refunded after you are sent the notice that your divorce application has been issued”.[1]
The application fee covers every later stage of the divorce: the acknowledgment of service, the application for a conditional order after the 20-week reflection period, and the application for the final order six weeks after that. No further court fee is payable for a standard undefended divorce, which under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 cannot be contested on the merits.[1][5] The minimum period from application to final order is 26 weeks; timescales are explained on divorce timescales.
A person who has changed their name since the marriage, or whose marriage certificate is in another language, will incur incidental costs for certified copies or translations, but these are not court fees.[1]
What the fee does and does not cover
The £628 fee covers the legal ending of the marriage or civil partnership only. It does not cover: any financial order, whether agreed (£62) or contested (£321); any application about children, such as a child arrangements order on Form C100 (£270); legal advice or representation; mediation; or the valuation of pensions and property.[5][6][7] A couple who agree everything and draft their own consent order will therefore pay £690 in court fees in total; a couple who dispute finances will pay at least £949 in court fees before any professional costs.
| Item | Court fee | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce, dissolution or nullity application (sole or joint) | £628 | Fee 1.2, EX50 13 July 2026[5] |
| Conditional order and final order applications | No further fee | Included in the application fee[1] |
| Consent order (financial order by consent, with Form D81) | £62 | Fee 5.1[5][6] |
| Contested financial order (Form A) | £321 | Fee 5.4; GOV.UK: “The court fee is £321”[5][7][12] |
| Application within proceedings on notice (for example to vary an order) | £195 | Fee 5.3[5] |
| Application within proceedings by consent or without notice | £62 | Fee 5.1[5] |
| Child arrangements, prohibited steps or specific issue order (Form C100) | £270 | Fee 2.1[5] |
| Non-molestation or occupation order | No fee | Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008[3] |
| Judicial separation application | £426 | MoneyHelper, citing the family fees list[10] |
Other court fees in a divorce
Consent order: £62
Where the parties have agreed how to divide their finances, they ask the court to approve a consent order. The application is made on Form A marked as by consent, with the draft order and a Form D81 statement of information, and the fee is £62, fee 5.1 in the July 2026 EX50 (“Application by consent for a financial order”); GOV.UK’s consent order page states “The court fee is £62.”[5][6] The court can approve the order only after the conditional order has been made.[6] A clean break order dismissing all claims where there is nothing to divide is a consent order and attracts the same fee.
Contested financial order: £321
Where there is no agreement, either party applies on Form A for the court to decide. The fee is £321, fee 5.4 (“Application for a financial order, other than by consent”), raised from £313 on 6 July 2026; GOV.UK’s page on getting the court to decide states “The court fee is £321.”[5][4][7] The applicant must first attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting or claim an exemption.[7] Later applications within the proceedings, for example to enforce or vary an order, are £195 on notice or £62 by consent or without notice.[5]
Help with Fees
Help with Fees is the HMCTS fee remission scheme. A person qualifies for the whole fee to be waived if they receive one of the qualifying benefits (income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Universal Credit with annual earnings under £6,000, or the guarantee element of Pension Credit) or if their gross monthly income is £1,420 or less as a single person or £2,130 or less as a couple, with £425 added for each child aged under 14 and £710 for each child aged 14 or over; in either case their savings must be below the capital limit, which for a fee of £628 is £4,250, or £16,000 if the applicant or their partner is 66 or over.[8][13][9] People with higher incomes may get part of the fee remitted, up to gross monthly income of £4,420 (single) or £5,130 (couple) plus the child allowances.[13]
| Test | Threshold for a £628 divorce fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Savings and investments (under 66) | Less than £4,250 (fees up to £1,420) | GOV.UK eligibility page; EX160A[8][13] |
| Savings and investments (66 or over) | Less than £16,000 | As above[8] |
| Qualifying benefit | Income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support, Universal Credit (earnings under £6,000 a year), Pension Credit guarantee credit | As above[8] |
| Gross monthly income, full remission | £1,420 single; £2,130 couple; plus £425 per child under 14 and £710 per child 14 or over | As above; SI 2023/1094[8][9] |
| Gross monthly income, partial remission | Up to £4,420 single; £5,130 couple; plus child allowances | EX160A[13] |
An application is made online at the same time as the divorce application, producing a Help with Fees reference number that is entered in place of payment, or on paper form EX160 sent with the D8.[14][1] A person who has already paid can apply for a refund within three months if they were eligible at the time.[14] In a joint application both applicants must qualify.[1] The income test is applied to the applicant and any partner living with them; a spouse from whom the applicant is separated is not counted as a partner. The thresholds, the three-band capital test and the raising of the age limit from 61 to 66 were introduced by the 2023 remissions order.[9]
Legal aid
Legal aid is separate from Help with Fees and, for most divorcing couples, unavailable. GOV.UK lists legal aid for family matters as covering “family mediation” and “needing advice on finances, children or divorce if you’ve been in an abusive relationship”.[15] Legal aid for a solicitor in a divorce or financial case therefore requires both evidence of domestic abuse or child abuse within the statutory gateway and satisfaction of the means test. Legal aid for family mediation is means-tested only, with no abuse requirement.[15] The means-test limits from 6 April 2026 are gross income of £2,657 a month, disposable income of £733 a month and disposable capital of £8,000; the Legal Aid Agency’s figures are compiled in a table by Legal Aid 60, an information site operated by Family Legal Ltd, the publisher of this wiki.[16][15] Where legal aid is granted, the court fee is met as a disbursement, so a legally aided applicant does not need Help with Fees.
Legal and professional costs
There is no official statistic for the average legal cost of a divorce in England and Wales. MoneyHelper, the government-backed guidance service, gives these ranges: from £250 plus VAT for a solicitor’s fixed fee to draw up a consent order after an uncontested settlement; £2,000 to £3,000 in total for a negotiated financial settlement through a solicitor charging by the hour; £8,000 to £15,000 for collaborative law; and “£30,000 (plus VAT) or more for a financial application that goes all the way to a contested final court hearing”. It puts online divorce services at £40 to £200 for a basic service or £500 to £900 where a solicitor manages the case, and mediators’ charges at “from £100 an hour”, with most couples having three or four sessions.[10] The Law Society notes that “Many solicitors charge a flat fee to complete a divorce, but this depends on the case”, and that a solicitor must give an estimate of total cost before being instructed.[17]
| Route | Typical cost per person, excluding the £628 fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Online application completed by the parties, no financial order | Nil | GOV.UK digital service[1] |
| Online or fixed-fee divorce service | £40 to £200 (basic); £500 to £900 (solicitor-managed) | MoneyHelper[10] |
| Fixed-fee consent order after an agreed settlement | From £250 plus VAT | MoneyHelper[10] |
| Mediation (three to four sessions) plus consent order | From £100 an hour per session | MoneyHelper[10] |
| Solicitor-negotiated financial settlement | £2,000 to £3,000 | MoneyHelper[10] |
| Collaborative law | £8,000 to £15,000 | MoneyHelper[10] |
| Contested financial proceedings to final hearing | £30,000 plus VAT or more | MoneyHelper[10] |
Fixed-fee and online services form a distinct category of the market. They range from document-preparation services that complete the D8 and, where relevant, a consent order for a set price, to solicitor firms offering a fixed fee for an undefended divorce, to mediation services bundling a MIAM, mediation and a solicitor-drafted consent order. Examples published by Family Legal Ltd, the publisher of this wiki, are Family Law Service’s £499 (including VAT) paralegal-drafted clean break consent order, which is not itself SRA-regulated and excludes pension sharing, business assets and multiple properties, and Mediate UK’s mediation and consent order package from £1,649 plus VAT per person; both prices are as published on 6 September 2026.[18][19] Whatever the provider, the £628 court fee is additional unless remitted.
A route-by-route breakdown of where costs arise, and an interactive estimator that runs in the browser and stores no data, are published by Divorce Magpie (divorce cost estimator), an information site operated by Family Legal Ltd; its guide puts the point simply: “the divorce itself never costs more than £628. Every figure above that line is money spent on reaching agreement.”[20][21]
Statistics
| Measure | Figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce applications | 28,632 (down 5 per cent on the same quarter in 2025) | Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026[22] |
| Sole and joint applications | 72 per cent sole (20,673); 28 per cent joint (7,959) | As above[22] |
| Final orders granted | 27,320 | As above[22] |
| Median time from application to conditional order | 27 weeks | As above[22] |
| Median time from application to final order | 39 weeks | As above[22] |
| Financial remedy applications | 12,646, of which 73 per cent uncontested | As above[22] |
| Divorces | 102,678 | ONS, 2023 (the most recent release)[23] |
Applying the £628 fee to 28,632 applications gives gross fee income of about £18 million in a single quarter before remissions; HMCTS does not publish the proportion of divorce applicants granted Help with Fees.[22][5] The Family Court Annual Report records 44,563 financial remedy applications issued in 2023 against 102,678 divorces that year, indicating that a large share of couples divorce without paying for, or obtaining, any financial order.[24][23]
History
| Date | Divorce application fee | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| 1 May 2008 | Fees consolidated in the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 | SI 2008/1054[3] |
| Before 30 September 2021 | £550 | Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 as then amended[11][17] |
| 30 September 2021 | £593 | Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2021[11] |
| 6 April 2022 | No change; no-fault divorce and the online joint application introduced | Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020[1] |
| 27 November 2023 | Help with Fees thresholds reset: income £1,420 / £2,130; capital £4,250; age limit 66 | SI 2023/1094[9] |
| Before 6 July 2026 | £612 | Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 as then amended[4] |
| 6 July 2026 | £628 | Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026[4] |
Criticism and debate
The divorce fee has been criticised as exceeding the administrative cost of processing an undefended online application, and successive increases, from £550 to £593 in 2021 and to £628 by July 2026, have been presented by the Ministry of Justice as adjustments to maintain court funding.[11][4] The Help with Fees thresholds were criticised before 2023 for excluding many low-paid applicants; the 2023 order raised the capital limit, simplified the capital test to three bands and raised the age limit from 61 to 66.[9] A separate criticism is that the fee is charged in full even where a joint application is made by a couple who have agreed everything and use no court time beyond automated processing. The wider debate about the cost of resolving finances, rather than the divorce itself, is covered on financial settlement.
Getting help
See also
- Divorce – the procedure the fee pays for
- Divorce timescales
- Consent order – the £62 application
- Form A – the £321 application
- Financial settlement
- Clean break order
- Family court fees – the full fee table and Help with Fees in detail
- Legal aid for family mediation
References
- Get a divorce: how to apply. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Get a divorce: check you can get a divorce. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008, SI 2008/1054 (as amended). legislation.gov.uk. Revised text up to date to 5 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, SI 2026/642. legislation.gov.uk. Made 11 June 2026; in force 6 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family court fees (EX50). HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 13 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Money and property when you divorce or separate: apply for a consent order. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Money and property when you divorce or separate: get the court to decide. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Get help paying court and tribunal fees: eligibility. GOV.UK. updated 2 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The Courts and Tribunals (Fee Remissions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2023, SI 2023/1094. legislation.gov.uk. In force 27 November 2023. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- How much does divorce or dissolution cost?. MoneyHelper. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2021, SI 2021/985. legislation.gov.uk. In force 30 September 2021. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Give notice of your intention to proceed with an application for a financial order: Form A. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 21 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- How to apply for help with fees: EX160A. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Get help paying court and tribunal fees. GOV.UK. updated 2 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Legal aid: what you can get legal aid for. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The legal aid means test, explained. Legal Aid 60 (Family Legal Ltd). Compiled table of limits from 6 April 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Getting a divorce. The Law Society. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- £499 clean break consent order. Family Law Service (Family Legal Ltd). Price including VAT as at 6 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family mediation costs. Mediate UK (Family Legal Ltd). Published prices, all plus VAT, as at 6 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- What does a divorce actually cost?. Divorce Magpie (Family Legal Ltd). updated 23 August 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Divorce cost estimator. Divorce Magpie (Family Legal Ltd). Court fee stated as correct as of July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026. Ministry of Justice. 25 June 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Divorces and dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023. Office for National Statistics. 2 July 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Court Annual Report 2024. Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. December 2024. Accessed 5 September 2026.
External links
This article is part of Divorce Law Wiki, published by Family Legal Ltd. It is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Last reviewed 6 September 2026. About this site and editorial policy · Report an error.