Legal aid for family mediation
Key facts
- Legal aid for family mediation is means-tested: it depends on your income, savings and capital.
- If you qualify, it covers your MIAM and your mediation sessions.
- If one of you qualifies, the other person’s MIAM and the first joint session can be covered too.
- You apply through a mediation provider that holds a legal aid contract, not through a separate application to the government.
- The non-eligible person can still use the £500 mediation voucher in child arrangements cases.
- Check your eligibility free at GOV.UK’s “Check if you can get legal aid” tool.
Legal aid did not disappear from family law, though many people assume it did. Since 2013 it has been sharply limited for solicitors and court representation, but it remains fully available for family mediation. If your income and capital are low enough, the government will pay for your MIAM and your mediation sessions in full, whether the dispute is about children, finances or both.
This guide explains what legal aid covers, how the means test works in outline, what happens when only one of you qualifies, and how legal aid fits alongside the mediation voucher. For the full picture of what you might pay without any funding, see our main guide to how much family mediation costs.
What legal aid covers in family mediation
If you qualify, legal aid pays for the whole mediation process from your side. That starts with the MIAM, the Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting where a mediator explains the process and checks it is suitable for you. It then covers your share of the joint mediation sessions, however many you need, and the documents the mediator prepares when you reach agreement. You pay nothing for any of it.
This makes legal aid broader than the voucher scheme in an important way: it applies to finance-only disputes as well as disputes about children. A couple mediating purely about the house and pensions cannot use the £500 voucher, but a person who passes the means test can still have their mediation funded by legal aid. It also covers the MIAM, which the voucher never does. A MIAM otherwise typically costs £100 to £150 per person; our page on MIAM costs has the detail.
In limited circumstances legal aid can also fund legal advice connected to family breakdown, most notably where there is evidence of domestic abuse. That is a separate strand with its own evidence requirements; our guide to domestic abuse evidence explains what counts. This page focuses on the mediation strand, which needs no such evidence, only the means test.
How the means test works
Legal aid for mediation is means-tested, which means eligibility is decided by looking at your financial position: your income, your partner’s income if you have a new partner you live with, your savings and other capital, and any benefits you receive. Some income-related benefits can qualify you automatically on the income side. The assessment looks at you as an individual, not at you and your former partner together, so it is common for one person in a separating couple to qualify while the other does not.
The thresholds are set by the Legal Aid Agency and change from time to time, so the reliable way to check is the official tool at GOV.UK, Check if you can get legal aid. It takes a few minutes and asks about your benefits, income and savings. A legal aid contracted mediator will then carry out the formal assessment before your MIAM, because the mediator, not you, submits the claim.
If you would like a quicker steer first, the free legal aid checker from Mediate UK asks a short set of questions about your benefits, income and savings and gives you an instant indication of whether you are likely to qualify, before you commit to anything.
Be ready to evidence what you declare. Providers typically ask for recent payslips or proof of benefits, bank statements for your accounts, and details of any savings or property beyond your home. Gathering these before your first appointment avoids delay. If your circumstances sit near the line, it costs nothing to be assessed, and the answer determines whether your entire mediation is free.
If one of you qualifies and the other does not
This is the situation many separating couples find themselves in, and the rules are more generous than people expect. When one person is eligible for legal aid, the funding does not stop at that person. The other person’s MIAM can be covered as well, and so can the first joint mediation session for both of you. In practice that means a non-eligible person can get through the MIAM and a full first session without paying anything.
From the second joint session onwards, the non-eligible person pays their own share at the mediator’s normal rate, while the eligible person remains fully funded throughout. For shorter cases, particularly children-only disputes that settle in two or three sessions, the paying person’s total can end up in the low hundreds of pounds rather than the four-figure sums people fear.
There is a further layer of help. If the case involves child arrangements, the non-eligible person can also use the family mediation voucher, the separate £500 contribution that is not means-tested. Legal aid funds one person, the voucher shrinks the other person’s bill, and between them a family dispute can often be mediated for very little. The voucher’s own rules are on our family mediation voucher scheme page.
Legal aid and the voucher compared
The two schemes are easy to confuse and often work best together. This table sets out the differences, with figures as of 13 July 2026.
| Legal aid | Mediation voucher | |
|---|---|---|
| Means-tested? | Yes, based on income, capital and benefits | No |
| Case types | Children, finances or both | Child arrangements only (finances qualify only alongside a child dispute) |
| Covers the MIAM? | Yes, for the eligible person, and the other person’s MIAM too | No, never |
| Amount | Full cost of the eligible person’s mediation | Up to £500 per family, once per case |
| Who applies | A mediator with a legal aid contract assesses and claims | An FMC-authorised mediator applies and is paid directly |
Note the practical point in the last row: not every mediator can offer legal aid. A mediator must hold a contract with the Legal Aid Agency to deliver publicly funded mediation, so if you think you may qualify, ask about legal aid before booking a MIAM. Booking with a provider that has no contract means paying privately even if you would have passed the means test.
Kelly, a part-time care assistant in Sunderland receiving Universal Credit, needed to sort out contact arrangements for her four-year-old after separating from Ross, a self-employed electrician. Kelly passed the means test, so her MIAM and every session were funded by legal aid, and Ross’s MIAM and the first joint session were covered as well. Because the dispute was about a child, the mediator also applied the £500 voucher against Ross’s share of the two further sessions. They agreed a pattern of Friday-to-Sunday contact each fortnight plus a midweek teatime visit. Ross’s total outlay came to £45; Kelly paid nothing.
One means test and one voucher between them turned a potential four-figure dispute into a bill smaller than a tank of petrol.
How to apply, step by step
There is no standalone application form you send to the government for mediation legal aid. The route runs through the mediator. Start with the GOV.UK checker to get an indication of eligibility, then find a mediation provider with a legal aid contract; the Family Mediation Council’s find a mediator search lets you look locally, and providers state on their websites whether they offer legal aid.
When you contact the provider, tell them you believe you qualify. They will ask for your evidence, usually payslips or benefit award letters, three months of bank statements and details of any capital, and run the formal assessment before your MIAM. If you pass, the MIAM and sessions are simply booked with nothing to pay. If you narrowly fail, you pay privately, and the voucher may still apply in a children case.
Legal aid remains the most used public funding route into mediation, and government statistics track how many MIAMs and mediation cases it funds each quarter. We summarise those figures, and what they say about how many people successfully use the scheme, on our legal aid mediation data page.
What legal aid does not do
Two limits are worth understanding before you plan around it. First, legal aid for mediation does not extend to general solicitor representation. Since the 2013 reforms, legal aid for family solicitors and court hearings is largely restricted to cases with evidence of domestic abuse or child protection concerns. Qualifying for mediation legal aid does not mean a funded solicitor will handle your divorce.
Second, legal aid does not pay court fees such as the £62 consent order fee you pay to make a financial agreement legally binding, though a separate scheme called Help with Fees can reduce or remove court fees for people on low incomes. Those fees, and how to get help with them, are covered on our family court fees page. If mediation resolves everything, the consent order fee is often the only court fee a couple ever pays.
Frequently asked questions
Is family mediation free if I get legal aid?
Yes. If you pass the means test, legal aid covers your MIAM, your joint mediation sessions and the documents prepared at the end, with nothing for you to pay. The assessment is carried out by a mediation provider holding a legal aid contract, so tell the provider you may qualify before booking.
What happens if my ex gets legal aid but I do not?
Your MIAM and the first joint session can be covered by their legal aid, so you start without paying. From the second session you pay your own share at the mediator’s normal rate. If the case involves child arrangements, you can also use the £500 mediation voucher, which is not means-tested.
How do I check if I qualify for legal aid for mediation?
Use the free “Check if you can get legal aid” tool on GOV.UK, which asks about your benefits, income and savings and gives an indication in minutes. A mediator with a legal aid contract then runs the formal assessment using your evidence, such as payslips, benefit letters and bank statements, before your MIAM.
Does legal aid cover mediation about money as well as children?
Yes. Unlike the mediation voucher, which requires a dispute about a child, legal aid covers mediation about finances, property, children or any combination. If you pass the means test, a finance-only mediation about the house and pensions is funded in exactly the same way as a children case.
Can any mediator offer legal aid?
No. Only providers holding a contract with the Legal Aid Agency can deliver legally aided mediation. Many accredited mediators work privately without a contract. If you think you qualify, confirm the provider offers legal aid before booking your MIAM, otherwise you will pay privately despite being eligible.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Check if you can get legal aid, verifies the official eligibility checking route and that the assessment covers benefits, income and savings (accessed July 2026).
- GOV.UK, Legal aid: family mediation, verifies that legal aid can cover family mediation, including child arrangements cases (accessed July 2026).
- GOV.UK, Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, verifies the £500 voucher rules referenced alongside legal aid (accessed July 2026).
- Family Mediation Council, Find a local mediator, verifies the register for locating mediation providers, including those offering legal aid (accessed July 2026).
- GOV.UK, Legal aid statistics, verifies the quarterly published data on legally aided MIAMs and mediation (accessed July 2026).