Tag: Money
Raising a child isn’t cheap, and it’s important to find a way to share this cost with your child’s other parent. The money that helps pay for a child’s everyday living costs is called child maintenance. This is paid by the parent who doesn’t usually live with the child (the ‘paying parent’) to the person who does the most day-to-day care of them (the ‘receiving parent’). You can either make arrangements privately with the other parent or go through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).
This page explains everything from how to apply to the CMS to how they work out your maintenance and how to complain if you need to.
What if we share the care of our child?
If you’d like to get advice tailored to your circumstances, talk to us.
Applying to the CMS
The CMS calculates how much child maintenance one parent should pay the other if you can’t decide this between you. You can use the service if you and the other parent live in the UK and your child is under 16, or under 20 and studying full-time for A-levels or equivalent.
To apply to the CMS, you first need to use the Get help arranging child maintenance service on gov.uk. This gives you information about getting support for your child, including how to make your own arrangement with the other parent (called a family-based arrangement). Through this service, you can get a reference number and start your application to the CMS.
You can only go directly to the CMS if you can’t use the online service.
The application process
If you’ve experienced domestic abuse, you should be able to claim child maintenance safely – see our page on this.
After you apply, the CMS will find out your child’s other parent’s income from HMRC (the tax office). Normally, the CMS will then get in touch with your child’s other parent to ask about their circumstances. They’ll usually also send them a calculation of how much child maintenance they’ll need to pay.
You should hear back from the CMS within 4 weeks. It might take longer if you don’t know where the other parent is and they have to be traced.
2 ways to be paid
The CMS can pay in 2 ways: direct pay and collect and pay. Most people start on direct pay and move on to collect and pay if they need to.
Direct pay
This is where CMS calculates your child maintenance and explains how much to pay, and your child’s other parent pays it directly to you. You and the other parent agree how and when to transfer the money.
It’s usually better to have maintenance payments made by standing order into your bank account. That way you can keep track of the payments, and have a record if things go wrong.
Even though the CMS doesn’t deal with the payments for you, the payments still need to be made in full and on time. If they aren’t, you can tell the CMS and they’ll chase the other parent.
Collect and pay
This is when the CMS collects the money from your child’s other parent and pays it to you.
The paying parent has to pay an extra 20% for this (on top of the child maintenance amount). And your child maintenance payments are reduced by 4%.
Because of this cost, you can’t choose to use collect and pay if your child’s other parent would prefer to use direct pay. If the CMS thinks your child’s other parent is unlikely to pay, they can decide you shouldn’t be paid directly and will step in to collect the payments.
How much will I be paid?
The CMS uses the paying parent’s weekly income before tax and National Insurance (gross income) to work out maintenance payments. This can include wages or income from a pension.
Other income, like interest on savings, income from a company or rent from a property is ignored in the initial calculations. Assets like savings and property are also usually ignored. If the paying parent has other income or savings, you can ask for these to be taken into account in the calculation.
The income of a paying parent’s partner is not included in the calculation.
There are different rates of child maintenance, depending on the paying parent’s income.
Basic rate
The paying parent pays the basic rate if none of the reduced rates apply. This is a percentage of the paying parent’s gross weekly income. It’s calculated in 2 stages.
Stage 1: The paying parent’s gross income is reduced by a certain percentage depending on how many children live with them. This includes the children of a new partner.
| Number of children living with the paying parent | Gross income is reduced by |
| 1 | 11% |
| 2 | 14% |
| 3 or more | 16% |
Stage 2: After these deductions are made, maintenance is calculated as a percentage of the remaining amount. The percentage depends on the number of children that need to be paid for. The amount is rounded to the nearest pound.
The first £800 of any earnings is assessed on the percentage shown in the first column of the table below. Earnings over £800 a week are assessed on the percentage shown in the second column. These 2 amounts are then added together.
| Number of children applied for |
Percentage of gross income up to £800 | Percentage of gross income over £800 |
| 1 | 12% | 9% |
| 2 | 16% | 12% |
| 3 or more | 19% | 15% |
Example of a basic rate calculation
Simon and Lucy are separated. They have 2 children, Evie and Ruby, who live with Lucy. Simon now lives with Jane and her 4 children. Lucy applies to the CMS for child maintenance.
Simon’s gross weekly earnings are £207.55 wages and some Working Tax Credits. Working Tax Credits aren’t counted as income.
Stage 1: Simon’s total weekly income is £207.55. This is reduced by 16% because he has 4 children living with him.
£207.55 x 16% = £33.21
£207.55 – £33.21 = £174.34
Stage 2: The maintenance due for 2 children is 16%.
£174.34 x 16% = £27.89
This is rounded to the nearest pound, so Simon pays Lucy £28 a week.
Reduced rate
The reduced rate is used when the paying parent’s gross weekly income is between £100 and £200 a week.
The paying parent pays £7 a week plus a percentage of their income over £100. The percentage depends on how many children the receiving parent is claiming child maintenance for, and the number of other children living with the paying parent. The total figure is rounded to the nearest pound.
The percentage of gross income over £100 calculated is:
| Other children living with the paying parent | Children applied for | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 or more | |
| None | 17% | 25% | 31% |
| 1 | 14.1% | 21.2% | 26.4% |
| 2 | 13.2% | 19.9% | 24.9% |
| 3 or more | 12.4% | 18.9% | 23.8% |
Example of reduced rate child maintenance calculation
Euan and Henry have separated. They have 1 child together, Callum, who lives with Henry. Euan now lives with his new partner David and his daughter Rana. Henry applies for child maintenance for Callum.
Euan earns £190 a week (gross income) and neither the nil rate nor the flat rate applies. The reduced rate applies as Euan’s income is between £100 and £200 a week.
Euan has to pay Henry £20 a week for child maintenance. The CMS works this out like this:
The amount of Euan’s weekly income above £100 is £90. He lives with 1 child and maintenance is being claimed for 1 child, so Euan has to pay 14.1% of £90 plus £7:
£90 x 14.1% = £12.69
£12.69 + £7 = £19.69
This is rounded to the nearest pound, so Euan pays £20 a week.
£7 a week (flat rate)
A £7 a week flat rate is used if the paying parent:
- Is earning less than £100 a week
- Claims Universal Credit because they have no income, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit (or their partner claims for both of them)
- Claims certain benefits like contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance, State Pension or Carer’s Allowance
Nil rate
Nil rate is when the paying parent doesn’t have to pay any child maintenance. This applies to a paying parent who is:
- Earning less than £7 a week (income before tax and National Insurance)
- A child under 16 or a young person under 19 in full-time non-advanced education (up to A-level or equivalent)
- 16 or 17 and on certain means-tested benefits
- A young person getting a work-based training allowance
- A prisoner
- In residential care or a nursing home and getting help with fees or on certain benefits
Problems with the CMS
If you have bad service from the CMS – for example, delays, bad communication or administrative mistakes – you can complain. The CMS should look into it and try to put things right.
If there have been long delays or you’ve been given the wrong information, you might be paid compensation. Also, if the CMS has caused you serious inconvenience, severe embarrassment or your health has suffered, you might be eligible for a small amount called a consolatory payment. Lots of people are frustrated when claiming child maintenance payments, but this in itself isn’t enough to get a consolatory payment. There’s no legal right to this.
Complaining might not change how much maintenance you get. If you think the calculation is wrong, you’ll need to challenge the calculation.
See how to complain to the CMS on gov.uk.