Child Maintenance

Understand your rights and responsibilities around child maintenance, with practical guidance to help you make informed decisions for your family.

Child Maintenance Solicitors

Financial arrangements for children can often be a source of concern and dispute following a separation. Understanding who is responsible for paying child maintenance, how payments are calculated and what happens if an agreement cannot be reached can help parents move forward with greater confidence.

Our Family Law team advises parents on all aspects of child law, including child maintenance arrangements. Whether you are negotiating an agreement directly with your child’s other parent or need advice about the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), we can provide clear, practical guidance tailored to your circumstances.

What is Child Maintenance?

Child maintenance is regular financial support paid by one parent to another to help meet the costs of raising a child. It is intended to contribute towards everyday living expenses, such as food, clothing, housing and other essential costs.

Many parents are able to agree child maintenance between themselves. These private arrangements can offer flexibility and avoid the need for formal intervention. However, where an agreement cannot be reached, the Child Maintenance Service can calculate, collect and, where necessary, enforce child maintenance payments.

How is Child Maintenance Calculated?

In most cases, the Child Maintenance Service uses a statutory formula to calculate how much child maintenance should be paid. The calculation takes into account a number of factors, including:

The paying parent’s gross weekly income
The number of children who require financial support
How many nights the child spends with each parent
Whether the paying parent has other dependent children living with them

While the CMS calculation applies in many situations, there are circumstances where parents may prefer to make their own arrangements or seek legal advice about the options available.

What if Child Maintenance is Not Being Paid?

Where child maintenance payments are missed or stop altogether, the Child Maintenance Service has legal powers to recover unpaid maintenance and take enforcement action where appropriate.

If you are experiencing difficulties receiving child maintenance, disagree with a CMS assessment or are unsure of your legal position, getting legal advice as soon as possible can help you understand your options and avoid disputes escalating unnecessarily.

How Bridge McFarland Can Help

Every family’s circumstances are different, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to child maintenance. Our solicitors will take the time to understand your situation, explain the options available and help you reach a practical solution wherever possible.

We can advise you on child maintenance as part of a wider family law matter, including Child Arrangements Orders, parental responsibility and other child law issues.

If you would like advice about child maintenance or any other issue involving your children, contact Bridge McFarland’s Family Law team today.

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Read our Child Law FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about Child Law

How easy this is to do and how to do it will depend on who has parental responsibility and whether all parties agree to the change. If all parties with parental responsibility have provided written agreement to the change this can be done easily via a Change of Name Deed. If one parent refuses, a Specific Issue Order will need to be obtained from the Court.

If your ex has parental responsibility, you cannot generally stop them from seeing your child without a Court Order in place. An exception to this would be if there are serious concerns about the child’s welfare or safety in which case, you should seek legal advice. If they don’t have parental responsibility, they do not have an automatic right to have contact with your child and would need to get a Court Order to do so if you don’t agree.

A Prohibited Steps Order is a court order which prevents a parent or guardian from taking specific actions regarding a child without the court’s permission. Examples include taking a child abroad and removing a child from school.

A Child Arrangements Order sets out where a child will live, who they will spend time with, and how contact will take place after parents separate or divorce. You might need a Child Arrangements Order if there is a disagreement between parents about where a child will live or when, where and how often contact can take place.

A Child Protection Plan is a plan put in place by the Local Authority to set out the action which is needed to reduce your child/children suffering harm. Under this plan a social worker is allocated to you and your family and regular meetings will take place (at least every 4 weeks) to review the plan and the progress which has been made.

This is a package of support which is put in place to provide extra support for your child/children and your family to address any areas of need and risk assessed by a Social Worker.

This is for families who might need a little extra support and is a group of people (including professionals, e.g; health visitors / social workers / teachers etc) who will work together to support you and your child/children to prevent any concerns increasing.