What is child maintenance?
When you separate from your partner, you are both expected to continue contributing towards the costs of your children. Often, this means one parent will pay maintenance to the other.
You can work out the amount of child maintenance together. Alternatively, if you cannot come to an agreement, you can ask the Child Maintenance Service to calculate it for you.
Arranging child maintenance yourself
If you are arranging child maintenance privately with your ex-partner, you are free to work out the amount between you. This is known as a family-based arrangement.
Family-based arrangements are not legally binding, so for them to work, both parents must be able to trust each other. However, they do offer the flexibility to meet changing needs and circumstances.
You do not need to involve the Child Maintenance Service if you make a family-based arrangement. However, it can be useful to check how much your child maintenance would be assessed at. That way, you can decide whether your family-based arrangement is fair.
You can calculate your child maintenance payments on GOV.UK.
When you are working out how much child maintenance you want to pay, you should consider what you want the payments to cover and how you want to pay.
For example:
- Would you like to contribute towards the cost of things like school uniforms and leisure activities?
- Will you pay a regular fixed amount, or vary how much you pay depending on your child’s needs that month? For example, you may want to pay extra if your child goes on a school trip.
- Do you want to pay a certain percentage of your salary? This might be useful if your earnings vary from month to month, such as if you are self-employed.
How much child maintenance are you expected to pay?
Sometimes, it is not possible to agree how much one parent should pay the other.
While using a mediation service could help you reach an agreement, the hurt feelings involved when you separate or get divorced can make this difficult.
If you cannot agree what your child maintenance payments should be, the Child Maintenance Service can be asked to work it out for you.
Unlike family-based arrangements, payments organised through the Child Maintenance Service are legally binding.
The Child Maintenance Service will consider:
- The paying parent’s income
- How many children you have together
- How much childcare the paying parent provides
- Whether the paying parent is paying child maintenance for other children from separate relationships
When does child maintenance stop?
You are expected to keep paying child maintenance until your child is 16. However, payments may continue until they are 20 if they are in full-time education studying for:
- A-levels
- Highers (Scotland)
- An equivalent qualification
How your income affects how much you pay
The Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance payments by applying a specific rate to your gross weekly income. That is how much money you receive before paying things like tax and National Insurance contributions.
The child maintenance rates are:
- Basic rate
- Reduced rate
- Flat rate
- Nil rate
Basic rate
You will be placed on the basic rate if your gross weekly income is between £200 and £3,000. The percentage of your income depends on how many children you are responsible for and the amount of childcare you provide.
Assuming that you are responsible for one child, your child maintenance payments would be 12% of your gross weekly income.
Reduced rate
A gross weekly income of more than £100 but less than £200 will put you on the reduced rate. You will pay a standard weekly rate of £7 on your first £100, plus an additional percentage of the rest of your income.
Assuming that you are responsible for one child, you will pay £7 on your first £100, plus 17% of your remaining gross weekly income.
Flat rate
A flat rate of £7 will be applied if you are on benefits or your gross weekly income is below £100.
Nil rate
You do not need to pay any child maintenance if your gross weekly income is less than £7.
How the number of children you have affects how much you pay
The number of children you have with your ex-partner will increase how much child maintenance you need to pay.
Assuming you are on the basic rate, you will need to pay:
- 12% of your gross weekly income for one child
- 16% of your gross weekly income for two children
- 19% of your gross weekly income for three or more children
If you are on the reduced rate, you will pay a standard weekly payment of £7 on the first £100 of your income, plus a percentage of your remaining gross weekly income up to £200:
- 17% of your remaining gross weekly income for one child
- 25% of your remaining gross weekly income for two children
- 31% of your remaining gross weekly income for three or more children
How shared parenting affects child maintenance
After you separate, you will probably share caring for your children with your ex-partner.
Your children’s living arrangements are up to you. However, one parent will typically be responsible for the children most of the time.
If you are the paying parent, you will pay less child maintenance if you look after your children for a certain amount of time.
Child maintenance is reduced for each child depending on the number of nights you spend with them.
Over the course of a year, if you look after your children between:
- 52 to 103 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 1/7th for each child
- 104 to 155 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 2/7ths for each child
- 156 to 174 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 3/7ths for each child
- 175 nights or more: child maintenance is reduced by 50%, with a further reduction of £7 for each child
Supporting children from another relationship
If the paying parent is supporting children from another relationship, and their gross weekly income is between £200 and £3,000, the weekly income considered by the Child Maintenance Service will be reduced in its calculations.
If you are paying for:
- One other child, your considered income will be reduced by 11%
- Two other children, your considered income will be reduced by 14%
- Three or more children, your considered income will be reduced by 16%
Talk to a solicitor
If you need help organising child maintenance with your ex-partner, you should talk to a solicitor.
The Law Superstore connects you with family solicitors across England and Wales. Just enter a few details to compare prices and connect with professionals who can guide you through the child maintenance process.
