Child maintenance, or child support, is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs. The parent who doesn’t have main day-to-day care of the child pays child maintenance to the parent who does. This is a financial arrangement between you and the other parent of your child. It’s made when you’ve separated from the other parent or if you’ve never been in a relationship.

Child maintenance is for the benefit of the child. It helps pay for things they need, like clothing, food and other essentials. It can also help to keep both parents involved with their lives. It doesn’t always have to be about exchanging money – providing support by paying for things like clothes and trips out can make just as much of a difference.

Whatever type of arrangement you put in place, it can help to give a child the best start in life. It’s also important to remember that paying maintenance for your child is a legal responsibility.

Over half a million families choose to make an arrangement between themselves, by agreeing with the other parent about the amount and type of child maintenance that one will pay to the other. This is known as a family-based or family arrangement.

There are three different options you can use to arrange child maintenance.

• Privately, with an amount agreed between the two of you.
• Using a maintenance calculator and have the amount collected through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).
• Through a court order.

The Child Maintenance Service is a UK government body that calculates, collects and enforces child maintenance payments. It can help by:

• Working out an amount to pay
• Arrange payments and take action if the other parent refuses to pay
• Sort out disagreements about parentage
• Try to locate the other parent if you are unsure about their location

You can use the Child Maintenance Service to arrange child maintenance if you do not want your child’s other parent to know your personal information, location, etc. The CMS offers two kinds of arrangement:

• Direct Pay, where the Child Maintenance Service works out the amount of child maintenance a paying parent must pay. Both parents agree between themselves how and when the paying parent will pay the receiving parent direct. If the paying parent doesn’t pay in full and on time the Child Maintenance Service may move the case to Collect & Pay and may take immediate enforcement action.
• Collect & Pay, where the Child Maintenance Service works out the amount of child maintenance to be paid, collects payments from the paying parent and passes them on to the receiving parent. If the paying parent doesn’t pay in full and on time the Child Maintenance Service may take immediate enforcement action.

If you decide to use the Collect and Pay service, you’ll also have to pay fees for collecting and paying out child maintenance.They want to encourage more parents to work together to arrange child maintenance instead of using the Child Maintenance Service or the courts.

The fees are:

• A 20% collection fee for paying parents using the Collect and Pay service, on top of their usual amount
• A 4% collection fee for receiving parents using the Collect and Pay service, deducted from their usual amount
• A range of enforcement charges for paying parents who fail to pay their child maintenance in full and on time.

There will be no collection fees for parents who work together to agree their own family based arrangement, or use Direct Pay.

A private arrangement can be the most helpful and straightforward. Obviously, this depends on your relationship with the other parent and whether you can work this out amicably and fairly.

You may choose to use the Child Maintenance Service if you do not feel able to work out a private arrangement. This may be because you cannot agree on a private arrangement, or you do not want to have direct contact with the other parent.

If there has been domestic abuse, you can ask for the CMS to arrange maintenance for you and you will not have to pay a fee.

If you are going through the courts to finalise a divorce or separation you may be able to make arrangements for child maintenance to be a part of this process. This would be called a consent order. There is more information about making a consent order on GOV.UK.

You might have to go to court to arrange child maintenance if the other parent lives outside of the UK or earns more than £3,000 a week and you would like them to top up the maintenance received through the CMS. You might also have to go to court to ask for more maintenance if you have to pay for extra costs from your child’s disability or possibly education.

With a family arrangement, you and the other parent can agree between yourselves how much child maintenance should be paid, and how often. A family arrangement also allows for times where you would rather pay for or receive specific things for your child, for example new clothes or a school trip, instead of money for child maintenance.

You can get an idea of what your payments might be by using this calculator. You could use this figure as a starting point for a family arrangement.

Child maintenance usually ends when your child turns 16, unless they continue with approved education or training. In these cases, it can last until they reach 20. However, maintenance stops if they start an advanced course like a university degree or if their employer pays for their education. Parents will be offered help and support throughout this change or can get advice from the GOV.UK website.

If you are not happy with the amount the CMS are saying you will receive, you can challenge a decision about this. This is called asking for ‘mandatory reconsideration’. You must ask for this within 30 days of the date on your decision letter.

If this decision is still unresolved after the mandatory reconsideration, you can appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal. You need to do this within one month of the mandatory reconsideration letter. You can download and use the Form SSCS2 and please send it to the address on this form.

You can also make a complaint about the CMS by following the DWP complaints procedure.

Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance (GHACM) is a helpful tool from GOV.UK

Citizens Advice Bureau have some helpful advice on child maintenance

Resolution have some useful information for frequently asked questions around child maintenance