Child maintenance is the regular financial contribution the parent who does not live with a child day to day makes towards the child's living costs. Most cases run through the Child Maintenance Service formula rather than the courts. This guide explains what maintenance covers, how the CMS calculates it from gross income, how shared care reduces it, the enforcement powers behind it, and the reforms due from 2027.
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Who Pays, How Much, and Under Whose Rules
Both parents remain financially responsible for their children after separation, however the relationship ended and whatever the contact arrangements. The parent the child does not mainly live with pays maintenance to the parent who provides the main home — by private agreement if you can, through the Child Maintenance Service if you cannot.
Under the CMS basic rate, a paying parent gives 12% of gross weekly income for one child, 16% for two and 19% for three or more, on income up to £800 a week, with lower percentages on the slice from £800 to £3,000. Shared care reduces the figure by one-seventh per weekly night band. Mothers and fathers are treated identically.
What Child Maintenance Is
Child maintenance is a contribution to a child's everyday living costs — the food, home, clothes and ordinary life the resident parent funds daily. It is owed for children under 16, or under 20 in approved full-time non-advanced education, and liability does not depend on marriage, parental responsibility or seeing the child.
And What It Is Not
Maintenance is not a fee for contact, and contact is not a reward for payment: courts and the CMS treat the two as entirely separate, so withholding one over the other backfires legally. It is also separate from spousal maintenance, which supports a former partner rather than the children.
What the Payment Covers
The formula amount covers the child's share of everyday costs: housing, food, clothing, school essentials and activities. It is a contribution to the household that raises the child, not an itemised invoice — the receiving parent does not have to account for how it is spent.
Costs Outside the Formula
School fees, disability-related costs and some other expenses sit outside the CMS calculation; courts retain power to order them separately, most often as part of the wider financial arrangements on divorce dealt with in a financial order. Variations within the CMS can also reflect special expenses such as contact travel costs.
The Legal Framework
The scheme rests on the Child Support Act 1991, administered today by the Child Maintenance Service. Parents can agree privately (a "family-based arrangement"), use CMS Direct Pay — where the CMS calculates and the parents transfer between themselves — or Collect and Pay, where the CMS collects and enforces, with collection fees on both sides.
Reforms Due From 2027
In June 2025 the government confirmed, in its response on improving collection and transfer of payments, that the service will be restructured from 2027: Direct Pay and Collect and Pay are to be replaced by a single service model designed to track payments and catch arrears earlier, with revised fees. Existing calculations are unaffected until the changes commence, and the percentages in this guide are the current statutory rates.
How the CMS Calculates Maintenance
The CMS works from the paying parent's gross weekly income, taken from HMRC data before tax and National Insurance but after pension contributions. The official guide to how child maintenance is worked out sets the bands: a flat rate of £7 a week applies on very low income or certain benefits; a reduced rate applies between £100.01 and £199.99; the basic rate of 12%, 16% or 19% for one, two or three-plus children applies up to £800 a week; and 9%, 12% or 15% applies to the slice between £800.01 and £3,000. Income above £3,000 a week can only be addressed by a court top-up order.
The Shared Care Reduction
Where the child stays overnight with the paying parent, the weekly amount reduces by one-seventh per band: 52 to 103 nights a year cuts it by one-seventh, 104 to 155 by two-sevenths, 156 to 174 by three-sevenths, and at 175 nights or more the amount halves with a further £7 per child reduction. Genuinely equal care can take the case out of the scheme altogether.
A Worked Example
A parent earning £600 gross a week paying for two children owes the basic rate: 16% of £600 = £96 a week. If the children stay two nights a week (around 104 nights a year), the two-sevenths reduction brings it to £96 − £27.43 = £68.57 a week. The CMS rounds and adjusts for other children in the paying parent's household before finalising.
Court Orders and Enforcement
Courts deal with maintenance only in defined cases — top-ups above the CMS ceiling, school fees, disabled children's costs, and where a consent order records the parents' agreement (which excludes the CMS for its first year). Enforcement of CMS arrears is administrative and muscular: deduction from earnings orders, deductions directly from bank accounts, charging orders against property and, through the courts, disqualification from driving or committal. Arrears do not expire.
When a Parent Lives Abroad
The CMS generally cannot assess a parent living outside the UK unless they work for a UK employer or similar. Instead, the REMO framework — reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders — lets a UK order be registered and enforced in partner countries, and vice versa. Cross-border cases are slower and turn on the destination country's rules, so early advice matters; our guide to child living arrangements covers the related jurisdiction questions.
Frequently askedQuestions about how child maintenance works
How much child maintenance will I pay?
Under the basic rate, 12% of gross weekly income for one child, 16% for two, 19% for three or more, on income up to £800 a week, with 9%, 12% or 15% on income between £800.01 and £3,000. Overnight stays reduce the figure by one-seventh per band. The gov.uk calculator gives a personal estimate.
Does a mother have to pay child maintenance?
Yes, on identical terms. The paying parent is whichever parent the child does not mainly live with, regardless of sex. A mother whose children live mainly with their father pays under the same percentages and shared-care rules as any father would.
Until what age is child maintenance payable?
Until the child turns 16, or 20 while they remain in approved full-time non-advanced education such as A-levels. University does not extend CMS liability, though courts can order support for students in some circumstances as part of wider financial proceedings.
Can I refuse contact if maintenance is not paid?
No. Maintenance and contact are legally separate: unpaid maintenance is enforced through the CMS or the courts, and contact is decided on the child's welfare. Withholding contact over money undermines your own position in any children proceedings.
What happens if child maintenance is not paid?
The CMS can move the case to Collect and Pay, deduct from earnings or directly from bank accounts, secure arrears against property, and apply to court for driving disqualification or committal in persistent cases. Arrears remain collectable indefinitely.
What is changing in the 2027 CMS reforms?
Following the June 2025 government response, Direct Pay and Collect and Pay are due to be replaced from 2027 by a single service that monitors payments and intervenes on arrears sooner, with revised fees. Current calculations and rates continue until the new scheme commences.
Tell us the income picture, the care pattern and what has gone unpaid. We will tell you what the formula produces and which route enforces or varies it.
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