Child Maintenance Arrangements

This is a financial arrangement between you and the other parent. Child arrangements in terms of the living and care arrangements are dealt with separately.

You must have a child maintenance arrangement if your child is under 16 (or under 20 if they are still in full-time education). Both parents are responsible for the costs of raising their children, even if they do not see them.

This include:

• A private financial arrangement between parents, if both parents agree
• Through the Child Maintenance Service (formerly known as the Child Support Agency)

The Child Maintenance Service can:

• Work out an amount to pay
• arrange payments and take action if a parent does not pay
• sort out disagreements about parentage and where DNA testing might be appropriate
• try to find the other parent if you do not know where they are
• If you do not want your child’s other parent to contact you or your child

You can use the Child Maintenance Service to arrange child maintenance if you do not want your child’s other parent to know your location or personal information.

Child maintenance often is only one financial issue when parties separate.

Depending on whether or not you are or were married, there may also be other financial claims in respect of property, money, investments, business interests and pensions.

It is important that you seek legal advice from a divorce and family law solicitor about your financial claims and rights.

These are two types of maintenance agreements or family orders.

• Child maintenance is for the benefit of the children whilst they are minors or in full time education
• Spousal maintenance is for the benefit of a spouse or ex-spouse

Child maintenance is usually calculated by the Child Maintenance Service or parents use a similar calculator to agree the level of child support.

Spousal maintenance, by contrast, very much depends on the facts of the case to include the central questions of:

• How much spousal maintenance?
• For how long?

You have to have been married to claim spousal maintenance and it is based very much on ‘need’. It is important that you seek expert divorce and family law advice about your finances.

If you are not married, it may still be possible to raise a financial claim for financial provision for your child under Schedule 1  Children Act 1989. In addition to child maintenance, there may also be financial issues relating to what type of house your child needs to live, payment of school fees, and lump sums of money that are necessary and so on. A family law solicitor can help advise you about this and to look at your-ex partner’s ability to pay.

Yes, there always remains a responsibility to pay child support maintenance.

The Child Maintenance Service may decline to deal with child maintenance in these circumstances, but the family court will instead assume jurisdiction for child maintenance instead. You should also seek specialist family law advice in the other relevant country so that you can compare the financial outcomes and also look at any enforcement issues should your ex-partner refuse to pay.

New child maintenance laws were passed on 23 July 2023, will allow the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to impose tougher sanctions on non-paying parents. More extreme enforcement can include:

• Forced property sales
• Stripping away passports
• Taking away driving licences

Under the Child Support (Enforcement) Act, the purpose of the family law is to help you get paid faster. The DWP will have the power to use a liability order to reclaim unpaid child maintenance. This avoids the need for the DWP to apply to the family court and waiting up to 20 weeks. This will also help significant maintenance arrears from building up.

The Child Maintenance Service still does have other options available to retrieve missed child maintenance payments, including:

• Taking money direct from a parent’s employer
• Accessing money direct from a parent’s bank account

In 2023, a Bill that gives the Child Maintenance Service new powers to stop child maintenance economic abuse received Royal Assent.

The Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act 2023 gives the Child Maintenance Service powers to intervene in cases where there is clear evidence of domestic abuse. It can use its powers to collect and make payments. This set-up, known as Collect and Pay, is already being used by 37% of parents using the Child Maintenance Service.

We are expert divorce and family law solicitors. We specialise in financial cases, including child and spousal maintenance, as well as childcare arrangements in terms of where a child should live and spend time with the other parent. We have a strong team of dedicated family lawyers and offer a fix fee consultation to help advise and guide you. You can then make an informed decision on how to proceed with your case using our family law road map.