Child Maintenance Advice

What Child Maintenance Is and Who Must Pay

Child maintenance covers how a child's living costs are paid when one parent does not live with the child. Both parents are responsible for the costs of raising their children, whether they were married, in a civil partnership or never in a relationship, and the duty does not depend on the arrangements for seeing the child, which sit under children matters.

An arrangement is needed while the child is under 16, or under 20 if in approved education or training. Payments do not affect benefits, including Universal Credit, and are not taxed.

There are three routes:

• A private arrangement, often called a family-based arrangement: flexible, changeable, and not enforceable on its own.
• The Child Maintenance Service, which works out an amount using a fixed formula, arranges payments and takes action if a parent does not pay.
• A court order, available only in the cases set out in section 8 of the Child Support Act 1991 or where the service has no jurisdiction.

How the Amount Is Worked Out

The Child Maintenance Service takes the paying parent's gross yearly income from HM Revenue and Customs, adjusts it for pension payments and other children supported, and applies one of its rates to the gross weekly figure. On the basic rate, for gross weekly income of £200 or more, Schedule 1 to the Child Support Act 1991 sets 12% for one child, 16% for two and 19% for three or more, with 9%, 12% and 15% on the part of the income above £800 a week; reduced, flat and nil rates apply below £200.

Any gross weekly income over £3,000 is ignored, which is why a court top-up exists. Shared care also reduces the figure: the service works from the number of nights in a court order or agreed between the parents, and at least 52 overnight stays a year with the paying parent cuts the basic or reduced rate amount by one seventh, rising through bands to one half at 175 nights or more.

The GOV.UK child maintenance calculator applies these rules and gives an estimate. Where the HMRC figure understates the paying parent's means, either parent can ask for a variation bringing in unearned income such as rent or dividends, notional income from assets, or diverted income, subject to the minimum figures in the service's guide.

The court is not bound by the formula. In divorce proceedings, section 25(3) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires it to have particular regard to the child's financial needs and resources, any disability, the education or training the child was expected to have, and the parents' means. Paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 sets out comparable factors where unmarried parents apply.

When the Court Can Order Child Maintenance

Section 8 of the Child Support Act 1991 provides that where the Child Maintenance Service would have jurisdiction to make a calculation, no court may make, vary or revive a maintenance order for that child, subject to limited exceptions. The four that matter most are:

• Agreed orders: where a written agreement provides for periodical payments for the child, the court may make an order in all material respects in the same terms, which is how child maintenance is written into a consent order.
• Top-up orders: where a calculation is in force and the paying parent's gross weekly income exceeds the £3,000 cap, the court may order additional periodical payments if satisfied that the circumstances make that appropriate.
• Education and training: an order made solely to meet some or all of the expenses of schooling or vocational training, which is how private school fees are dealt with.
• Disability: where personal independence payment or disability living allowance is paid for the child, or the child is disabled, an order made solely to meet expenses attributable to the disability.

Section 8 does not bar the court where the service cannot act, though the court must still have jurisdiction: a calculation can only be made where the parent with care, the paying parent and the child are all habitually resident in the United Kingdom, unless the paying parent works abroad for the Crown, the armed forces or certain UK-registered companies and bodies. The service also deals only with a child's legal parents, so a step-parent can be ordered to pay only by the court, and only where they were married to or the civil partner of the child's parent and both of them treated the child as a child of the family: the power is in section 23 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 once a divorce, dissolution, nullity or separation order has been made, with the additional factors in section 25(4), and under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 where no such order has been made, because paragraph 16(2) of that Schedule treats a party to a marriage or civil partnership as a parent of a child of the family.

Married parents and civil partners raise child maintenance within their financial settlement on divorce on Form A, after a mediation information and assessment meeting unless exempt (see our MIAM advice). Unmarried parents apply under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989, where a lump sum or a property order is not a maintenance order and so is not caught by section 8, but periodical payments are and need one of the same exceptions; see Schedule 1 Children Act claims. The court fee for either application is on the GOV.UK court and tribunal fees page.

One timing rule catches people out: under section 4(10)(aa) of the 1991 Act, while a court maintenance order made on or after 3 March 2003 has been in force for less than a year, neither parent can apply to the service for that child, though the court can still vary its own order; after that year either parent may apply.

Evidence and Common Problems

Because the formula runs on gross income, most disputes are about what that income is: the HMRC figure is straightforward for an employee but not for the self-employed, directors paid in dividends or parents with rental or overseas income. Other recurring problems:

• Shared care: the reduction can reach a half, but the service takes the number of nights from a court order or from what the parents agree, and where they agree on at least 52 nights but not the exact number it assumes 52.
• Changes of circumstances: an income change of 25% or more, or the loss of an income, must be reported and either parent can report it, a change of main carer must be reported, a new address must be given within 7 days of moving, and the service reviews the paying parent's income every year.
• Non-payment: the service can move the case to Collect and Pay, issue a deduction from earnings order, take deductions from bank accounts and apply to the magistrates' court for a liability order, after which enforcement agents, a forced sale, disqualification from driving or holding a passport and prison are available. Arrears remain payable after regular maintenance ends.

A court order is enforced through the family court instead: see enforcement of financial orders.

How the Child Maintenance Process Works

1. We work out the likely figure and tell you whether a court exception applies.
2. We try to agree it: a written family-based arrangement records who pays what and when.
3. Where agreement fails or contact is unsafe, we help you apply to the service through the GOV.UK Get help arranging child maintenance tool. Both parents say whether they prefer Direct Pay, where the paying parent pays the other parent, or Collect and Pay, where the service collects and charges a fee at the rates in the GOV.UK Child Maintenance Service guide. On 23 June 2025 the government said it intends to remove Direct Pay and change the fees, which needs legislation; until then the current rules apply.
4. Where the court route is open, we prepare Form A or a Schedule 1 application, with the MIAM certificate or exemption and the disclosure the court requires.
5. Where an overall settlement is agreed, we draft the child maintenance terms into the consent order alongside any spousal maintenance, so the court approves them together.
6. We keep the arrangement current: court orders for children can be varied when circumstances change (see variation of financial orders).

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Advice matters most where:

• the paying parent earns more than the £3,000 a week cap, or has income the HMRC figure does not capture
• school fees or the costs of a child's disability are in issue, because only the court can order them
• the paying parent lives or works abroad; see also our international family law page
• a step-parent is being asked to pay, or parentage is disputed
• child maintenance is part of a wider divorce settlement, where the one year rule applies
• there has been domestic abuse: the service can be used without the other parent learning your location. Tell the service at the application stage if it is not safe for the other parent to know your name or where you live, and GOV.UK advises asking your bank for an account with a non-geographic sort code before payments go direct to you. Our domestic abuse injunctions page covers protective orders. In immediate danger call 999; the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

Our family team at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge, advises on child maintenance as part of our financial settlements work.

RakLAW does not offer legal aid. Our charges are on the family law fees page, the first 15-minute consultation is free, and you can call 0203 345 2000 or book an appointment online.