The Child Maintenance Service

If you and your partner cannot agree child maintenance payments between yourselves, the Child Maintenance Service can help. The Child Maintenance Service is the successor to the Child Support Agency

Using the Child Maintenance Service

When possible, parents are encouraged to make their own private arrangements for child maintenance. This is the cheapest and most flexible option. If this is difficult, most parents can get help from the Child Maintenance Service.

If you cannot agree an amount between yourselves, the Child Maintenance Service can help you work out how much child maintenance has to be paid - 'statutory child maintenance'.

There is no fee when the paying parent pays directly.

You may want the Child Maintenance Service to collect payments from the paying parent, for example if you have difficulty talking to the other parent or expect to have problems getting paid. There is a cost for using the Collect and Pay service:

• 20% (which is added to the payment) for paying parents.
• 4% which is deducted from the amount the receiving parent gets.

If you are using Direct Pay or Collect and Pay, the Child Maintenance Service can also take enforcement action to collect any payments that are missed. The paying parent will have to pay additional enforcement charges.

The Child Maintenance Service can also help if there are disputes over whether someone is a child's parent, or if you do not know where your child's other parent is.

To find out more, contact the Child Maintenance Service (0800 171 2345).

When the Child Maintenance Service cannot help

You cannot use the Child Maintenance Service if:

• the child and parent with the main day-to-day care responsibilities live outside the UK
• if you have an existing consent order approved by a court that is less than a year old

In these circumstances, unless you can reach a private agreement you would need to take court action.

Statutory child maintenance

The Child Maintenance Service has a formula for calculating the amount of maintenance non-resident parents must pay to support children.

Statutory child maintenance is based on the paying parent's gross weekly income (ie before deducting tax or National Insurance contributions) less any pension contributions. The amount of child maintenance also depends on:

• how many children maintenance is being paid for;
• how often the children stay overnight with the paying parent;
• whether the paying parent is also paying maintenance for other children (for example, from a different relationship);
• whether the paying parent is also supporting other children (typically children living with them that they or their partner get child benefit for).

Changing statutory child maintenance

The paying parent may be able to have the child maintenance they pay reduced to take any special expenses into account. Special expenses can include the costs of keeping in touch with the children, looking after a disabled child, or contributing to the mortgage on the house your children live in (provided you no longer own a share in that house).

The receiving parent can apply for the income used to work out child maintenance to be increased if there is other income that hasn't been included. This might apply if the paying parent has income from savings and investments, or is diverting income (eg by keeping profits within a company they own or getting employment benefits like a company car).

If you think you have reason to apply for a variation, you should contact the Child Maintenance Service.

Statutory child maintenance can also be affected by a change in circumstances; for example, if the paying parent's income changes or they have another child. The Child Maintenance Service also carries out an annual review to check the information they have and see if the amount of statutory child maintenance needs to change.