Child Maintenance

Child Maintenance

Child maintenance is a payment, usually from the parent who does not live with the child to the parent who primarily cares for the child. Child maintenance is payable if your child is under 16 (or under 20 if they are in approved education or training).

Some common misconceptions are

• Child Maintenance only relates to costs directly attributed to the child eg. school uniform or a club.
• Child Maintenance is only payable in circumstances where time with the child is being spent with both parents.
• Child maintenance is only payable if the parents are married.

The payment is to cover the child’s overall living costs, which includes, but is not limited to household bills or food shopping. Both parents are responsible for the costs of raising their children, even if they do not see them.

The Child Maintenance Service:

Child Maintenance is usually calculated and dealt with by the Child Maintenance Service if no agreement can be reached between the parents. This is paid to the resident parent at least until at least the child reaches the age of sixteen, or twenty, as long as they are in ‘approved education or training’, which means A ‘Levels, Highers or equivalent. The CMS will:

• Work out an amount to pay
• Arrange payments and take action if a parent does not pay
• Sort out disagreements about parentage
• Try to find the other parent if you do not know where they are

Sometimes Child Maintenance is paid until the end of the first degree if that child goes on to university, although that amount can be split so that some of it actually goes to the child directly. That would only happen if you have a court order extending the maintenance post-secondary education. The CMS does not cover tertiary education costs.

If you enquiry is in relation to child maintenance payments, you should refer to the Child Maintenance Service at Child Maintenance Service here.

How Can Blanchards Help?

Child maintenance through the child maintenance service is capped at an income of £156,000 per year (£3,000 per week) before tax, which is the maximum income of the paying parent that will be taken into account for child maintenance. If the paying parent’s income is higher than £156,000 gross per year, it may be possible to apply to the court for top-up maintenance.

This is where the team at Blanchards Law can assist under Schedule 1 under the Children Act – child maintenance ‘Top Up Orders’.

If you have been informed by the Child Maintenance Service that the maximum income of the paying parent has reached the cap, you could be entitled to make an application for additional maintenance or lump sums for the benefit of your children. Please do not hesitate to contact us and make an appointment for a free consultation with one of our knowledgeable members of staff.

How to Calculate Child Maintenance

The court uses what is still known as the CMS Formula. This is calculated as a percentage of the gross weekly income of the paying parent, from £200 per week to £3,000 per week as follows:

• One child: 12% of gross weekly income
• Two children: 16%
• Three or more children: 19%
• If the earnings are more than £3,000 per week, you will need to apply to court for a ‘top-up’, but you will need to show a CMS calculation which states that your earnings are £3,000 per week or more.

You can work out what you can expect to pay/expect to receive by using this link here: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance

Points to note about child maintenance:

• The income of the parent with care (PWC) is completely ignored.
• The pension contributions of the Paying Parent are taken off the gross weekly income before the percentage split is done.
• If the paying parent’s gross weekly income is between £200 and £3,000 and they pay child maintenance for other children, or they have other children in their household, this is taken into account when working out how much they should pay. The Child Maintenance Service simply reduces the amount of weekly income that it takes into account. For example, if the paying parent is paying for:
  – One other child, their weekly income will be reduced by 11%
  – Two other children, their weekly income will be reduced by 14%
  – Three or more other children, their weekly income will be reduced by 16%

Contact between the Paying Parent and the child reduces the maintenance as follows:

Child Maintenance Agreements

You can reach whatever agreements you like in relation to money for the children, but enforcement is a problem if one person doesn’t keep to it. As with other agreements, the court does not have to follow them, and to have the best chance of getting the order that you want, you will need to:

• Get legal advice.
• Not be rushed, or rush your partner into signing anything.
• Give full financial disclosure, as this is a reason why the court may not order that an agreement must be followed.

It is important to be aware that even if you keep to these general principles, you will not necessarily get a court to uphold your agreement. The only way to secure compliance by your partner and enforcement by the court is to have the agreement drawn up into an order and approved by a judge. This can be done under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989.