Child maintenance is a form of child support for the parent that lives with and has the day to day care of the child (‘receiving parent’), paid for by the other parent (‘paying parent’). It is intended to be a contribution towards your child’s living costs. It is an important form of support which tries to ensure that both parents are responsible for the child’s living costs, even if they do not see them regularly or at all.
There is a government service called the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) which helps parents work out, collect and pay out child maintenance. It is very useful in circumstances whereby separated parents cannot agree a sum for child maintenance between themselves. It can however also be used simply to calculate the sum of child maintenance that should be paid.
Child maintenance is usually calculated by the CMS by using the following steps:-
1. Income
The first step is to look at what the paying parent’s gross income is and whether they receive any benefits such as universal credits.
2. Things that affect income
The next step is to look at whether there are certain things that may affect the paying parent’s income, such as other children that the paying parent has to support or pension payments. This may be taken into consideration by the CMS.
3. Child maintenance rates
The CMS will then apply one of four different rates of child maintenance. These depend upon the paying parents gross weekly income.
The rates are as follows:
| Gross weekly income | Rate | Weekly amount |
| Unknown or not provided | Default | £38 for 1 child, £51 for 2 children, £64 for 3 or more children |
| Below £7 | Nil | £0 |
| £ to £100 or if they receive benefits | Flat | £7 |
| £100.01 to £199.99 | Reduced | Calculated using a formula |
| £200 to £3,000 | Basic | Calculated using a formula |
If the paying parent’s gross weekly income is higher than £3,000, the receiving parent can apply to the Court to make a child maintenance top-up order.
4. Other children
They will then look at how many children the paying parent has to pay child maintenance payments for and how many children live with them.
5. Weekly amount of child maintenance
The weekly child maintenance sum is then calculated on the basis of all of the information above.
6. Shared care
If the child spends time overnight with the paying parent, the child maintenance calculation will be deducted appropriately to reflect the average number of shared care nights a week.
Although child maintenance is calculated as a weekly figure, it can be paid monthly, fortnightly or weekly.
The CMS website has a useful calculator which can be used as a general guide to estimate what you are entitled to or how much you should be paying to the other parent.
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance
If an agreement cannot be reached, a CMS application can be made, in which the CMS will make a formal calculation as to how much child maintenance should be paid.
If you have any questions about this issue, or any other family law matter, please contact our specialist children team who would be happy to assist.
