Child maintenance: what you need to know

If you’re curious about child maintenance and are trying to figure how out much you’ll get or pay, you might turn to the government’s child maintenance calculator. This will give you a number in about 90 seconds, but it won’t tell you how it got there, why it might be different from what you expected, or when child maintenance stops.

We’ve done the arithmetic and looked into the finer details of child maintenance to help you feel as informed as possible, as you navigate child custody, as well as this stage of your divorce or relationship breakdown.

What is child maintenance and what does it cover?

First things first, we need to establish what child maintenance actually is. It’s money towards a child’s every day living costs, paid for by the parent the child doesn’t mainly live with, to the parent that they do live with.

Both parents are financially responsible for their children, whether or not they see them, and whether or not the parents were ever married. That’s non-negotiable.

Child maintenance is intended to cover a number of things, and it’s deliberately unspecific as there are many uses for it. It should go towards things like:

• Food for your child

• Clothes

• Heating for the home the child lives in

• General upkeep of the home they live in

Child maintenance does not need to be itemised, and the parent who receives the maintenance payments is not required to account for how it is spent. You can’t require receipts, and it cannot be withheld due to disapproval over how it’s spent. If you’re facing a situation like this, check out our support page for more advice and guidance.

Child maintenance doesn’t automatically cover extras such as school trips, music lessons, a first car, university costs etc. Those costs should be agreed separately between the two of you, in writing.

It’s also important to note that child maintenance is a completely separate system to your child custody arrangements. How much time a child spends with their parent will impact the amount of child maintenance required, but no one should pay to see their child, and paying child maintenance cannot be stopped just because contact has broken down. It should never be used as leverage.

How much is child maintenance?

If you’re trying to figure out the formula behind child maintenance, there are three ways to arrange it. Child maintenance can be arranged directly between the two of you, through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), or, in limited circumstances, by a court order. Most people tend to agree it privately or through the CMS.

The CMS uses the paying parent’s gross weekly income, taken from HRMC, to figure out how much they pay. Which rate applies to them will depend on where their income falls. Below you’ll see how it’s calculated against weekly income, plus the basic rate percentages.

A child maintenance example

If you’re looking for an example of child maintenance calculations in practise, here is one based on the paying parent earning £52,000 a year - £1,000 a week gross - with one child, no other children from other relationships, and no overnight stays:

• First £800 × 12% = £96.00

• Remaining £200 × 9% = £18.00

So they’d pay £114 a week. But if you were to give that parent two nights a week with the child, totalling 104 nights a year:

• £114 minus two sevenths = £81.43 a week

It’s the same income and the same child, but there’s a £32.57 a week difference - which adds up to about £1,700 a year. Which is why it’s really important to include the overnight access accurately in the calculations.

What changes the child maintenance calculations

There are three things that impact how much child maintenance is paid:

• Overnight stays - the more nights the child spends with the paying parent, the lower the payment. It changes in bands, detailed in the table below.

• Other children in the paying parent’s household. Before the percentages are applied, gross income is reduced by 11% for one other child, 14% for two, and 16% for three or more. Starting a new family will impact how much is paid to support the children from the first family.

• Pension contributions - these are taken off gross income before the calculations are made. Read more about pensions and divorce here.

You’ll note there’s a dramatic difference between 103 nights and 104 nights. It’s an uncomfortable fact about a system that’s meant to be about providing for children, and it means that if arrangements drift by a night a fortnight, it can change how much maintenance the child receives.

Why is my child maintenance so low (or so high)?

Hopefully you’re beginning to see that child maintenance is a complex business, and it doesn’t always feel fair. There are a few reasons behind why child maintenance might be higher or lower than you expect, and these tend to be:

• It’s calculated by gross income, not take-home pay. If you’re comparing the number to what’s on a payslip, it won’t add up.

• HRMC might have out of date figures. They could be looking at last year’s numbers - if your income has changed by 25% or more in the last year, you can ask that it is recalculated.

• Overnight stays are counted from what’s actually happening, not what an order says, which is when the bands above come into play.

• Bonuses, dividends and self-employment all can have an impact. If you believe the income being declared doesn’t reflect reality, you need to engage a variation application. Unearned income and diverted income are grounds to do this.

• If you earn more than £3,000 a week, CMS doesn’t calculate it anymore. Income beyond that is dealt with by the court through something called a ‘top-up order’, which requires a separate application.

When does child maintenance stop?

Child maintenance officially stops at 20 at the latest, or earlier if the child leaves approved education or training.

Approved education means more than 12 hours a week of supervised study or work experience on average. A-levels, T Levels, GCSEs, Scottish Higher and National 5s, NVQs up to level three, some home education and traineeships all count as part of this. The child must have been accepted on to the course before they turn 19.

University also stops child maintenance. A degree, a BTEC Higher National Certificate, or any employer-funded course counts as advanced education, and child maintenance ends. The moment your child gets into university is the moment the payments stop. This can feel challenging as for most families, it’s the most expensive period of time in their lives.

There is no obligation for a parent to contribute towards university costs, but plenty choose to do so. It’s worth agreeing how you will handle university costs in advance between you, so the expectation is set and no one is surprised when the time comes around.

Child maintenance payments also end on a fixed date - not just after exams finish. When the child’s course ends, maintenance runs until the last day of February, May, August or November - whichever comes first after they leave.

Another thing that stops child maintenance is if the child marries or forms a civil partnership before the time the maintenance was otherwise due to end.

Parents can ask CMS to close their case where they’ve agreed to arrange child maintenance between the two of them privately.

Direct Pay or Collect and Pay, and what it costs

Once CMS has calculated your child maintenance amount, there are two ways for the money to be moved.

• Direct Pay: The CMS works out the figure, and the parents move the money themselves. There are no fees involved. Most people operate this way.

• Collect and Pay: The CMS collects the money and passes it on. This is for cases where direct payment isn’t working. It will cost both parents more - the paying parent pays 20% on top of the maintenance, and the receiving parent loses 4% of what arrives.

There is no longer an application fee for child maintenance. The old £20 charge was removed as of February 2024.

It is important to know that the government has said that it intends to abolish Direct Pay all together, and move all CMS cases to Collect and Pay from 2027 to 2028. Fees will drop to around 2% for people who pay on time, while non-compliant paying parents will keep the 20% fee. If you’re in the middle of arranging child maintenance payments, it’s worth bearing this in mind and checking to see how this will impact your case if the structure does change.

What if child maintenance isn’t being paid?

Unfortunately, non-payment of child maintenance is a real issue. Arrears are a common cause of complaint in child maintenance cases. The CMS has power to help you in this situation - deductions from earnings can be taken directly from wages via a deduction from earnings order. Deductions can also be made directly from bank accounts, and court action can follow with serious impacts.

Enforcement can be slow though, and the burden of chasing often unfairly falls on the parent who is having to fund all of the living costs for the child.

There are two practical things you can do to help your case if you’re not receiving child maintenance:

• Keep a written record of every payment and every missed one from the very beginning. Collect evidence wherever possible - screenshots of bank statements, for example, to back up this record.

• Report a change in the other parent’s circumstances. If they get a new job, start a business, move house, you can report this. Don’t assume the CMS will notice, because it doesn’t always.

Child maintenance where there’s been domestic abuse

You do not have to have contact with the other parent to arrange child maintenance. The CMS will act as your go-between, and Collect and Pay exists partly for situations like this, so you don’t have to exchange bank details or be in touch about money for any reason.

If you are in a situation where there has been abuse, say so when you apply for child maintenance. It will impact how your case is handled. You will not get a fee exemption due to domestic abuse, which is an unfair flaw in the system - a domestic abuse victim still loses 4%.

The National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, 24 hours, on 0808 2000 247. Our support page has the others.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The Child Maintenance Service covers England, Wales and Scotland on the same basis. Northern Ireland has its own Child Maintenance Service with equivalent rules and separate administration.

Scottish readers: maintenance works the same way, but the divorce and financial provision rules around it don't.

Discover what you’re entitled to in a divorce here, and read more about divorce and joint mortgages here.

Sources:

• Child Support Act 1991, Schedule 1 — The basic rate percentages (12/16/19% up to £800, 9/12/15% above), the reduced rate, the £7 flat rate, and the 11/14/16% reduction for other children in the household.

• GOV.UK — How child maintenance is worked out — the five rates, the income bands, the £3,000 ceiling, the default rate, and the shared-care reduction bands (52–103 nights 1/7, 104–155 2/7, 156–174 3/7, 175+ half plus £7).

• GOV.UK — When child maintenance stops — age 20 or leaving approved education; the 12-hour test; accepted onto the course before 19; university, degrees, BTEC HNCs and employer-funded courses end it; the February / May / August / November end dates.

• GOV.UK — What child maintenance is — both parents financially responsible; in place to 16, or 20 in approved education or training.

• House of Commons Library — What fees are charged when arranging child maintenance? — the £20 application fee removed February 2024; Direct Pay free; Collect and Pay 20% paying parent / 4% receiving parent; the June 2025 government response setting out the planned abolition of Direct Pay and the move to 2% for compliant users from 2027-28.