Received a Money Claim Online claim form?

This page is for people who have been sent a claim. If you want to make a claim yourself, see GOV.UK’s guide to making a court claim for money. Money Claim Online is an HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) system that creditors use to issue claims for a fixed amount of money under £100,000. A claim form from it is real court paperwork, not a collection letter, and it has a deadline that matters. This guide covers England and Wales.

Is the claim genuine?

There are two HMCTS online services for money claims, and your paperwork tells you which one your claim is in:

Money Claim Online claims are issued by the Civil National Business Centre in Northampton, which used to be called the County Court Business Centre. The claim form names the claimant (the creditor), the amount, the court fee and a short description of why they say you owe it.

If you are unsure whether a claim is real, check it using the contact details on GOV.UK’s page on responding to a court claim, not a phone number or link in an unexpected email or text. The court never asks you to pay the debt to it: payments go to the claimant.

How long do you have to respond?

The clock starts from when the claim is treated as served, not from when you open it. A Money Claim Online claim form is treated as served on the fifth day after it was issued, whether or not that is a working day. From then:

Sources: Civil Procedure Rules Part 10 (acknowledgment of service) and Part 15, rules 15.4 and 15.5 (defence).

GOV.UK’s advice is to respond by the date on the email or letter you received. Check the dates on your own papers, and respond well before the last day. An acknowledgment of service only buys time to prepare a defence; if you are going to admit the claim, you can do that straight away.

What are your options?

Source: GOV.UK, form N9 response pack. You can do all of these online instead of on paper.

How do you admit the claim and offer to pay in instalments?

Fill in the admission (online, or form N9A) and include a statement of your income, spending, assets and debts. Offer an amount you can keep up after paying rent or mortgage, council tax, energy and food. Offering more than you can afford only leads to missed payments and enforcement later.

The creditor can accept your offer or reject it. If it rejects it, the court sets the rate, based on your figures. For amounts up to £50,000 a court officer can decide without a hearing, and either side can ask a judge to look at the decision again within 14 days.

Admitting and asking for time also stops the creditor getting a default judgment. But it usually still ends in a CCJ: the creditor can ask the court for a judgment on your admission, which follows the payments agreed or set by the court. See what a CCJ is for what that means for your credit file, and how to pay in full within a month to have it removed.

How do you defend or part admit the claim?

Defend if you have a real reason to say you do not owe some or all of the money. Common reasons are:

• the debt is not yours, or you have already paid it
• the amount is wrong, for example it includes charges you did not agree to
• the claimant cannot show it owns the debt or has the documents it relies on. See how to ask a creditor to prove a debt
• the debt is too old: if the creditor left it more than 6 years, it may be statute-barred. You must raise this yourself in your defence, because the court does not check it for you

File your defence online or on form N9B by the deadline, and explain your reasons in plain language. If you admit part of the claim, say how much and offer to pay that part. The creditor can then accept that amount or carry on with the claim for the rest.

If you dispute a claim of £10,000 or less, you will be told you must attend mediation. It is a free telephone session of up to one hour with a court mediator, and if it does not settle, the claim goes to a hearing. This applies to claims for a fixed sum issued from 22 May 2024.

What if this is one of several debts?

A court claim is often a sign that other debts are also behind. Before you commit to instalments on this one, look at your whole budget: offering most of your spare money to the creditor that happened to sue first can leave nothing for the rest. Some debt solutions can deal with a claim or a judgment alongside your other debts, and the debt solutions comparison sets them side by side.

Free, impartial advice is available from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice and National Debtline. An adviser can help you fill in the forms, check whether you have a defence and work out an affordable offer. See where to get free debt advice. Get in touch as soon as the claim arrives, because the deadline does not wait for an appointment.

What happens if the deadline passes?

If you have not responded and the time has run out, the creditor can ask for a default judgment. If you pay the whole claim, including costs, before judgment is entered, no default judgment can be made. If you are only a little late and no judgment has been entered yet, respond immediately anyway.

Once a default judgment is made, you can only get rid of it by paying in full within one calendar month, or by asking the court to set it aside, which needs a good reason and a £321 fee. See how to remove or set aside a CCJ.

What to do next

1. Work out the date of service and your deadline, and put it in your diary.
2. Decide whether you owe all, part or none of the money. If you need time to prepare a defence, file an acknowledgment of service within 14 days.
3. Respond online or on paper by the deadline, and keep copies of everything you send.
4. For other letters and court papers, see our debt problems hub.