Appealing Help With Fees rejection

[Winter Sun]

I'm making 3 applications to the family court for finances (final hearing was a couple of years ago). My income exceeds their limit of £6k per year so my application for help with fees has been rejected. I'm on universal credit, low income and with 3 children, it's very difficult to make ends meet, especially with unreliable maintenance payments (which one of the applications seeks to remedy). Wondering if anyone has any advice on the merits of appealing the rejection, or tips on how to do so? Their calculations are correct, but its just it doesn't take into account the bigger picture of years of non or unreliable payments which have put me in this difficult position where I now have no option other than to apply to court. While the fees are half of what I've had to pay for my boiler breaking down twice this year, paying them will be crippling nonetheless, especially as said boiler is likely to break down again within the next 6 months! I have no savings, living on the edge with credit card and overdraft etc etc. Thanks for any help

[echat11]

Celestine Might be able to help on this, you'll need to be patient.

[Winter Sun]

Thank you Echat11 - I have just over a week left before I need to either pay up or send a letter to the delivery manager (paying the fee is out of the question financially at the best of times, but even more so at the end of the summer holidays and with the start of the school year costs!). The only instruction they've given is "stating full reasons why you disagree with this decision and providing supporting evidence." Thanks for any help Celestine and anyone else.

[Celestine]

Definitely write to the delivery manager. If they are using maintenance calculations rather than actual payments received, then print off all bank statements and highlight the discrepancies.
The 6k threshold is frankly laughable in such circumstances and the court may be flexible if you push back hard.

[Winter Sun]

Thank you Celestine for your reply.

I sent an appeal to the delivery manager - the night before the final date I could appeal by / pay the court fees. In the original rejection email they sent me they said they'd reply to an appeal within 10 working days - but that was now nearly 30 working days ago. I've sent a couple of follow-up emails to check the status / that they received the email safely, but had no word, and rather disconcertingly, those emails have not generated an auto reply like I'd normally get (someone on the generic helpline I called said they've had to report some courts who have been found to turn the automatic reply off!!). So I'm feeling rather uneasy about it all - no idea if my appeal will be processed at some point (perhaps within their worst case 20 week scenario) or if it's just got lost somewhere and I'll have to start the whole process again once the 20 week wait has elapsed!

[Celestine]

I'm sorry but you are experiencing the horrible state of the UK court system. Everything is weeks in arrears, cases taking 18 months to reach hearings. All you can is keep copies of everything you've sent, perhaps collate in a mini-bundle ready for submission in case anything has been 'lost'. Keep us informed.