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A top priority for separating parents is sorting out financial support for their children. Trust in our experience to guide you through the options.
Our child maintenance lawyers can help you agree how much you or your former partner should pay, change the terms of an existing agreement, or help if maintenance payments have stopped.
If you’re not married, you can’t claim maintenance from your ex for your own needs, but you can make financial claims on behalf of your child. This is because parents have a legal duty to financially contribute to their children’s upbringing regardless of whether they see them or not. The most common form of financial support for children is child maintenance – a regular, reliable financial support paid towards a child’s day-to-day living costs.
The parent without the main day-to-day care of the child (the parent who pays, sometimes called the non-resident parent or NRP) pays child maintenance to the parent with the main day-to-day care (the parent who receives maintenance, sometimes called the parent with care or PWC).
A child means someone who’s under 16, or under 20 if they’re in approved education or training. You can get child maintenance if:
You’ll have to pay child maintenance if you:
You and your ex can agree whatever maintenance arrangements suit you and your family. However, many people like to use the formula used by the Child Maintenance Service when they are asked to assess how much maintenance should be paid. The formula takes into account the paying parent's gross income (less pension contributions) and calculates a percentage figure of this amount. The formula takes into account things like if the child has overnight stays with the paying parent, or if the paying parent has other children living with them. You can find their useful calculator here.
If you can, it’s best for you to arrange child maintenance directly with your child’s other parent. It’s called making a private or "family-based" arrangement. You could try using mediation if you are finding it difficult to reach an agreement. It avoids the need to go to the CMS who charge for their services, as well as avoiding costly and stressful court proceedings. It’s also much easier (and quicker) to adapt a private arrangement if your family’s circumstances change.
However, family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable, so they are not suitable for all families. To make the agreement legally binding, you can apply to the court to turn it into a consent order. However, either parent can opt out after 12 months and go to the CMS and ask them to calculate the maintenance payable.
If a private arrangement isn’t suitable for you, you can apply to the Child Maintenance Service. You’ll need to pay a £20 fee unless you’re under 19 or have experienced domestic violence or abuse. You can apply to the CMS if you:
You might have to go to court to arrange maintenance. You’ll have to do this if the parent paying maintenance:
You’ll also have to go to court to ask for more maintenance if you have to pay for extra things like the cost of your child’s disability or their education. This is because the CMS doesn’t take these extra costs into account in its calculation.
Our team of legal experts are here to support you.
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If you think you can sort out child maintenance between yourselves, you don’t need to use the courts or the CMS. A private agreement is an arrangement between you and your ex about how much maintenance will be paid. You can use the child maintenance calculator to work out what the payments should be. A private agreement is not legally binding which means you won’t be able to enforce it if it breaks down. If you want a binding private agreement you should speak to a specialist child maintenance lawyer.
The government’s Child Maintenance Service (CMS) can calculate and collect child maintenance for you. They can also act as a third party if you don’t want any contact with your ex. The CMS can:
Either parent can apply to the CMS. The arrangements are legally binding but aren’t as flexible as a private agreement. For example, it can take a while to change your payments if either of your circumstances change.
There are some cases where the courts can help with child maintenance. Some examples are:
If your circumstances involve any of these issues and you cannot reach an agreement, then it should be dealt with by the court rather than the CMS. It would be sensible to take advice from a specialist child maintenance lawyer as these situations are not always straightforward.
You can make an arrangement for any amount of child maintenance, as long as you both agree. However, knowing how much to agree on can be difficult. There is a useful calculator which follows the formula the CMS use.
The Child Maintenance Service can only enforce child maintenance payments against the paying parent if they live in the UK. As a result, you must seek a child maintenance order through the Family Court and enquire as to whether the paying parent resides in a Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (REMO) country (countries that have entered into a REMO is linked here).
If the paying parent lives in a country on this list, you can make an application and it’ll be enforced by the courts according to the laws of the country where the paying parent lives.
If the country that the paying parent lives in isn’t on the REMO list, which includes the United States, Russia, the UAE and China, whether any order can be enforced will be dictated by the laws of that country.
In any event, mediation or an alternative form of dispute resolution is advised to see if you and your child’s other parent can reach an agreement on child maintenance payments.
Similarly, as the recipient of child maintenance, if you and your child move outside of England and Wales, the parent remaining in England can’t be compelled to pay child maintenance. This is because the Child Maintenance Service can’t make decisions about child maintenance when the child or the receiving parent live abroad.
In these circumstances, you may need to apply for child maintenance in the country in which you’re now living. The availability of funds will depend on the laws of the country that you’re in.
If the paying parent doesn’t pay child maintenance that has been ordered from abroad, and the country that you live in has entered into a Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (REMO) (countries that have entered into a REMO is linked here) with England and Wales, you’ll be able to apply to the court to enforce the foreign court order. The courts in England can then take necessary steps to enforce the payment of child maintenance.
This is a common, but complex, problem and it is worth speaking to a specialist child maintenance lawyer. Shared care is not just about how often your child stays with each of you but all the arrangements surrounding the looking after of your child. You may not have to pay child maintenance but take legal advice before stopping any payments. Speak to our team to find out how we can help.