Child Maintenance: How It's Worked Out, the Rates, and When It Stops

There is no single ‘right’ way, and the cheapest route is almost always to agree it between yourselves. The three options are:

• ✓Family-based arrangement, a private agreement between the two of you. Free, flexible and not legally binding, you can use the government's calculator to agree a fair figure.
• ✓Child Maintenance Service (CMS), the government works out a legally enforceable amount using your income. There is a £20 application fee (waived if you are under 19 or a victim of domestic abuse).
• ✓Court order, only in specific cases, for example where the paying parent lives abroad, earns over £3,000 a week gross, or where you need maintenance for a stepchild or a disabled child's extra costs.

The CMS starts with the paying parent's gross weekly income (their income before tax and National Insurance, but after pension contributions), taken from HMRC figures. Which rate applies depends on that income:

• ✓Nil rate, £0 a week: income under £7, or for full-time students, under-16s and prisoners.
• ✓Flat rate, £7 a week: income of £7 to £100, or if the paying parent gets certain benefits.
• ✓Reduced rate: income of £100.01 to £199.99, a £7 base plus a percentage of the income above £100.
• ✓Basic rate: income of £200 to £800, 12% for one child, 16% for two children, 19% for three or more children.
• ✓Basic plus rate: for the part of income between £800.01 and £3,000, an extra 9% for one child, 12% for two, 15% for three or more (on top of the basic rate on the first £800).

If the paying parent's gross income is more than £3,000 a week, the receiving parent can apply to the court for a ‘top-up’ on the amount above that. If the CMS cannot get income information, it applies a default rate of £38 a week for one child, £51 for two and £64 for three or more.

Two things change the figure before it is finalised:

Other children the paying parent supports. If the paying parent has other children living with them (including stepchildren they support), their gross income is first reduced by 11% for one other child, 14% for two, or 16% for three or more, before the rates above are applied.

Shared care. The more nights the child stays overnight with the paying parent, the less maintenance is due:

• ✓52 to 103 nights a year (about one night a week), reduce by one seventh
• ✓104 to 155 nights (about two nights a week), reduce by two sevenths
• ✓156 to 174 nights, reduce by three sevenths
• ✓175 or more nights (roughly equal care), reduce by half, plus a further £7 a week reduction for each child

Child maintenance is a contribution towards a child's everyday living costs. There is no fixed shopping list, but it is intended to help with things like:

• ✓Food, clothing and shoes
• ✓A share of housing costs, heating and the home the child lives in
• ✓Day-to-day travel, school basics and ordinary childhood costs

It is not separately itemised, the receiving parent does not have to account for how it is spent. One-off or extra costs (for example private school fees, or a disabled child's additional needs) are not part of the standard calculation and may need a separate court application.

If you use the CMS, there are two ways the money can move:

• ✓Direct Pay, the CMS works out the amount but you arrange the payments between yourselves (usually standing order). This is free.
• ✓Collect and Pay, the CMS collects the money from the paying parent and passes it on. This adds a 20% fee on top for the paying parent and takes 4% off the amount the receiving parent gets.

Maintenance is normally payable while the child is:

• ✓Under 16, or
• ✓Under 20 and in approved full-time education (up to and including A-levels or equivalent, but not university degrees) or on approved training.

It can also end earlier, for example if the child leaves education and starts work, if the parents get back together, or if the receiving parent stops being the main carer. University maintenance is not covered by the CMS, though parents often agree to keep supporting a child through higher education.

The rules are exactly the same whichever parent you are. The ‘paying parent’ is whichever parent the child spends fewer nights with, and the ‘receiving parent’ is the main carer, this is about care and income, not about being the mother or the father. A father who is the main carer receives maintenance in the same way a mother would, and vice versa.