The short answer
Legal aid still exists for family cases in England and Wales, but it works in two completely separate ways. Legal aid for family mediation is means tested and nothing else. Legal aid for a solicitor was withdrawn for most private family cases in April 2013, and now depends on evidence of domestic abuse or child protection concerns as well as your finances.
Key points
- These are two different schemes with two different tests. Being turned down for one tells you nothing about the other.
- Legal aid for mediation is means tested only. Abuse forms no part of that test.
- Legal aid for a solicitor needs a gateway, then the means test, then the merits test.
- If you qualify for mediation legal aid it is genuinely free. There is no contribution and nothing is recovered from you afterwards.
- The £500 mediation voucher is a third thing again, and it is not means tested at all.
- Most people who look into legal aid will not be eligible. There are still options, and this site covers them properly.
What is legal aid, and does it still exist for family cases?
Legal aid is public money that pays for legal help. It has existed in England and Wales since the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949, and the scheme opened in October 1950. It has never been abolished. What has happened, repeatedly, is that the range of problems it covers has narrowed.
For family cases the answer is yes, it still exists, but not in the way most people assume. In April 2013 most private family work was taken out of scope. Being on a low income stopped being enough to get a solicitor paid for. What survived was funding through specific gateways, principally domestic abuse and child protection, and funding for family mediation, which was never removed.
That is why this site is split the way it is. Two schemes, two tests, and the only way to answer “can I get legal aid” is to work out which one you are asking about.
Who administers legal aid in England and Wales?
The Legal Aid Agency administers legal aid. It is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, and it took over in 2013 from the Legal Services Commission, which was abolished that year.
You do not apply to the Legal Aid Agency directly. You apply through a provider that holds a contract with it, which for a solicitor means a firm with a legal aid contract, and for mediation means an authorised mediation service. The provider does the assessment against the Agency’s rules.
Only the Legal Aid Agency, or a provider acting under its contract, can decide whether you qualify. Nothing on this website is an assessment, and no online tool anywhere can give you a decision.
What did LASPO change in 2013, and why does that matter to you?
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012, and its legal aid provisions came into force on 1 April 2013. That date is the dividing line in every conversation about family legal aid.
Before it, being financially eligible was broadly enough to get a solicitor funded in a private family case. After it, it was not. Divorce, financial settlements and child arrangements all came out of scope unless you could get through a gateway.
The effect is visible in the courts. In 2013, neither party had a lawyer in about 14 per cent of family disputes. Across 2025 that figure was 47 per cent. Around 80 per cent of private family cases now involve at least one person representing themselves.
Family mediation was deliberately kept in scope. The policy intention was that people would mediate instead of going to court. What actually happened is more complicated, and worth understanding if you are weighing up your options.
Which family matters can still be funded?
Two lists, and they do not overlap.
Any family dispute suitable for mediation. Finances, property, child arrangements, or all of them together. The test is your money, not your circumstances.
Care proceedings and child protection. Private family cases where there is evidence of domestic abuse or of a risk to a child. Non-molestation and occupation orders. Forced marriage protection. Child abduction. Special guardianship, back in scope since May 2023.
If your case is an ordinary divorce with an ordinary argument about money, and there is no abuse and no child protection concern, a solicitor will not be funded. Mediation still might be.
What are the two tests: means and merits?
The means test asks whether you can afford to pay. It looks at your income, at your income after certain allowances, and at your savings and capital. It is arithmetic, and there is a published set of figures.
The merits test asks whether the case is worth funding, and whether what you might gain justifies the cost. It applies to solicitor funding and to Help with Family Mediation. It does not apply to the mediation itself in the same way, because mediation is assessed for suitability by the mediator instead.
For solicitor legal aid you need to pass a gateway and the means test and the merits test. Evidence of abuse on its own does not qualify anyone, and being poor on its own does not either. Both parts are needed. This trips up more people than anything else on the subject.
The figures
Legal aid means test limits, from 6 April 2026
These apply to controlled work and to family mediation. They are the same test.
| Test | Limit |
|---|---|
| Gross monthly income | £2,657 |
| Extra allowed for the 5th and each further child | £222 |
| Disposable monthly income | £733 |
| Disposable capital | £8,000 |
| Allowance for a partner | £237.25 |
| Allowance for each dependant, any age | £381.86 |
| Employment expenses, if you are employed | £45 |
| Housing cap, if you have no partner or dependants | £545 |
In force from 6 April 2026. Source: Legal Aid Agency, civil legal aid eligibility keycard 62. Checked 5 August 2026. Limits change without much notice, so please confirm the current position before relying on this.
What counts as income, and what counts as capital?
Income is what comes in each month: wages, self-employed profit, benefits, maintenance you receive, pension income. The assessment looks first at your gross income against a cap, then works out your disposable income by taking off tax, national insurance, housing costs up to a limit, and fixed allowances for a partner and for each dependant.
If you live with a partner, their income and capital are counted with yours, unless they are the other side in your case. That last point matters in a divorce, where your ex is the opponent and is not aggregated with you.
Capital is what you hold: savings, investments, valuable possessions and any equity in property, including the home you live in. This is where most people fall out of eligibility, and it is also where the most useful rule in the whole system sits, which is that assets you are actually arguing about can be partly ignored.
Capital limits, and what does not count goes through this properly.
The figures
Assets you are arguing about can be ignored, up to £100,000
This is the rule that surprises people most. If the house or the savings are the very thing in dispute, the Legal Aid Agency can leave a large part of them out of the calculation. It is called the subject matter of the dispute disregard.
| Rule | How it works |
|---|---|
| Maximum ignored | £100,000 |
| What it applies to | Capital only. Income can never be treated this way |
| What counts as in dispute | An asset actually being claimed in the proceedings, not simply one you own |
| A jointly owned asset in dispute | You are treated as owning half of it |
Where the family home is in dispute, three things are done in this order: the mortgage is taken off to find the equity, then up to £100,000 of your share of that equity is ignored as the disputed asset, then a further equity disregard of up to £100,000 is applied to whatever is left.
Source: Lord Chancellor’s guidance on determining financial eligibility for controlled work and family mediation, section 7.4. That is the right source for mediation. The Means Assessment Guidance covers certificated work and says so. Checked 5 August 2026.
What are passporting benefits?
Some benefits get you through the income part of the means test automatically. You do not have to prove your income separately, because receiving the benefit already demonstrates it.
This list changed in 2026 and most published guidance has not caught up. Income Support and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance no longer exist. Income-related Employment and Support Allowance ended for almost everybody on 1 July 2026. In practice the list is now short.
The figures
Benefits that get you through the income test
If you are properly receiving one of these, you pass the income part of the means test automatically. The list is shorter than it was, because two of the benefits on it no longer exist.
| Benefit | Position now |
|---|---|
| Universal Credit | Passports you |
| Pension Credit, the guarantee credit part | Passports you |
| Income-related Employment and Support Allowance | Ended on 1 July 2026, except for people who need an appointee and certain vulnerable claimants |
| Income Support | Abolished on 1 April 2026 |
| Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance | Abolished on 1 April 2026 |
A passporting benefit gets you through the income test only. Your savings and capital are assessed in every case, whatever benefit you are on.
The regulation still lists five benefits, but Income Support and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance were abolished by SI 2025/1148 and income-related ESA by SI 2026/409, as people moved across to Universal Credit. Underlying rule: regulation 6(2). Checked 5 August 2026.
What is a contribution, and when do you have to pay one?
A contribution is where legal aid pays for your case but you pay part of the cost yourself, either monthly out of income or in a lump sum out of capital.
Family mediation has never been contributory. The rules describe controlled work and family mediation as non-contributory forms of civil legal services. If you qualify financially for mediation legal aid, you are not asked for anything at all.
For solicitor funding the position is genuinely unclear at the moment. The regulations that set contributions were removed in June 2025 as a temporary measure and have not been reinstated, but the Legal Aid Agency’s own current eligibility card still prints the contribution bands. We are not going to publish a figure while the law and the official card disagree. Ask your provider what applies to you on the day you apply, because they will know.
What evidence do you need?
For mediation legal aid, financial evidence only. Recent payslips or accounts, bank statements, benefit award letters, and evidence of your housing costs. Nothing about your relationship or why you separated.
For solicitor legal aid through the domestic abuse gateway, you need evidence of the abuse as well as the financial evidence. The accepted list is broader than most people expect, and there is no longer any time limit on how old it can be.
The figures
Evidence accepted for the domestic abuse gateway
The list is broader than most people expect, and there is no longer any time limit on how old the evidence can be. The old five year rule was removed on 8 January 2018. If you were told years ago that your evidence was too old, that advice is out of date.
- A non-molestation order, occupation order or other protective injunction, including an undertaking
- A Domestic Abuse Protection Notice or Order
- A police caution, arrest, charge, conviction or bail conditions
- A letter or report from a GP, nurse, midwife or other health professional
- A health professional’s referral to a domestic abuse service
- A letter from a MARAC, an IDVA or an ISVA
- A letter from a domestic abuse support organisation or a refuge, including one refusing admission because it was full
- A letter from a local authority, a housing association or a housing officer
- A finding of fact made by a court
- Evidence of economic abuse
Evidence on its own does not get you legal aid. It opens the door. You must also be financially eligible and your case must pass the merits test. Where someone is at immediate risk, funding can be granted urgently and the finances checked afterwards.
Source: Legal Aid Agency, evidence requirements for private family law matters. Time limit removed: GOV.UK, 8 January 2018. Checked 5 August 2026.
Urgent help
If you are in danger, this comes first
Nothing on this page matters more than your safety. None of these services will ask you to prove anything before they help you.
- In an emergency, call 999. If you cannot speak, dial 999, listen to the operator, and press 55 when prompted. That is the silent solution, and it tells the police you need help without you having to say a word
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, free and open 24 hours: 0808 2000 247
- Men’s Advice Line, for men experiencing abuse: 0808 801 0327
- Galop, for LGBT+ people experiencing abuse: 0800 999 5428
There is no court fee to apply for a non-molestation or occupation order, and legal aid for a solicitor is still available to victims of domestic abuse who are financially eligible.
What if only one of you qualifies?
This is the most useful thing on this page, and hardly anyone knows it.
If one of you is financially eligible for legally aided mediation, that funding covers the MIAM and the first joint session for both of you, whichever order you are seen in. The person who is not eligible does not pay for those.
Then, if your case involves child arrangements, the person who is not eligible can still claim the £500 mediation voucher, because the voucher is not means tested. Their income is irrelevant to it.
Put together, a couple where only one qualifies can often get the MIAM and three further sessions without anyone paying anything, before cost enters the conversation at all. How that works in practice sets out the sequence.
What happens after you apply?
For mediation, the mediator assesses your finances and whether the case is suitable for mediation at the MIAM, and tells you there and then whether you are funded. It is quick because it is controlled work, which the provider decides itself under its contract.
For a solicitor, the firm submits an application to the Legal Aid Agency. Legal help can often be granted quickly by the firm. Full representation takes longer, because the Agency decides it. Where someone is at immediate risk, funding can be granted urgently and the finances checked afterwards.
If your circumstances change while your case is running, you must tell your provider. Coming into money mid-case, including money from the settlement itself, can change your position.
How to apply, and what happens next walks through both routes.
What legal aid does not cover
- Court fees. Legal aid pays for legal help, not the fee to issue an application. Help with Fees is a separate scheme, and many people who fail the legal aid test pass that one. Help with Fees, explained.
- Your ex’s costs, if a costs order is made against you.
- Anything outside the scope list. An ordinary financial settlement with no abuse and no child protection concern is not funded for a solicitor, however unfair it feels.
- Criminal, housing, immigration or benefits matters, as far as this site is concerned. Those are real legal aid categories, but they are different schemes with different rules and we do not cover them.
- Scotland and Northern Ireland. Entirely separate systems. Everything here is England and Wales only.
The figures
Family court fees in England and Wales
| Application | Fee |
|---|---|
| Apply for a divorce, dissolution or nullity | £628 |
| Financial order by consent, including a clean break | £62 |
| Contested financial order, the Form A application | £321 |
| Child arrangements, the C100 | £270 |
| General application within proceedings, D11 or C2 | £195 |
| Non-molestation or occupation order, the FL401 | No fee |
| Domestic Abuse Protection Order applied for by a victim | No fee |
There is no court fee to apply for a non-molestation or occupation order. Protection from abuse does not cost money at the court counter. You may pay for legal help to prepare it, and that is what legal aid can cover.
Help with Fees is separate from legal aid and can reduce or remove a court fee. Many people who do not qualify for legal aid do qualify for Help with Fees.
In force from 13 July 2026. Sources: the Ministry of Justice announcement and the fees order, SI 2026/642. Free applications: GOV.UK, injunctions: protection from domestic abuse. Checked 5 August 2026.
Jess’s view
“People ring us convinced legal aid was abolished, because someone told them that in 2013 and it stuck. It was not abolished. It was narrowed. The part that survived intact is the part most of them actually need, and they have talked themselves out of asking about it.”
Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Family Legal Ltd
Where to go next
- Legal aid for mediation, and how it differs from the voucher, if cost is the main obstacle and you and your ex can still talk.
- Legal aid for a family solicitor, if there has been abuse, or if children are at risk.
- What to do if you do not qualify, which is where most readers end up, and which nobody else writes for properly.
- The route finder, which asks a few questions and points you at the right one of those three.
Further reading: Family Law Wiki: legal aid in family law (who qualifies, means test, scope).