How much child maintenance should I pay?

If you and the other parent are arranging child maintenance between you, you’re free to decide the amount one parent pays the other. This is referred to as a family-based arrangement.

While the Child Maintenance Service doesn’t need to be involved if you do this, it’s a good idea to check the amount you agree against what they would assess it to be.

You can find out more about how child maintenance is calculated on GOV.UKOpens in a new window

It’s important to think about what you’d like to include in this payment and how you’d like to pay:

• Do you want to pay a fixed regular amount or will you vary it to help with extra expenses throughout the year?
• Do you want to cover the cost of things like school uniform, activities or holidays?
• Do you want to pay a percentage of your earnings? If your earnings fluctuate, this might be helpful to you but it would mean the amount of child support is less predictable.

Find out more about how to arrange child maintenance.

You can use the child maintenance calculator on GOV.UK to work out how much you should pay or receive.

If you can’t agree how much child maintenance one parent should pay the other, you can ask the Child Maintenance Service to calculate it for you.

They’ll take into account:

• how many children you have
• the paying parent’s income
• how much time children spend with the paying parent
• whether the paying parent is paying child maintenance for other children.

You’re normally expected to pay child maintenance until your child is 16, or until they’re 20 if they’re in school or college full-time studying for:

• A-levels
• Highers, or
• equivalent.

Child maintenance might stop earlier – for example, if one parent dies or the child no longer qualifies for child benefit.

There are different child maintenance rates according to the paying parent’s gross weekly income – this means how much you receive before things like tax and National Insurance are taken off.

(2024 figures - see GOV.UK for more information.)

If your gross weekly income is more than £3,000, you can apply to the court to make a child maintenance ‘top-up’ order.

But before the court will deal with your application, they’ll need to see a Child Maintenance Service calculation showing this.

If you’re paying child maintenance and you’re on the basic rate of child maintenance, the amount you pay will depend on the number of children you’re being asked to pay for.

Many parents decide to share the care of their children.

If your children spend some time with the paying parent, this will reduce the amount of child maintenance he or she pays.

There are different ‘bands’ which determine how much child maintenance is reduced by.

The amount of child maintenance is reduced for each child who spends time with the paying parent.

If over the year your child is with the paying parent between:

• 52 and 103 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 1/7th for each child
• 104 and 155 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 2/7th for each child
• 156 and 174 nights: child maintenance is reduced by 3/7th for each child
• 175 nights or more nights: child maintenance is reduced by 50%, plus an extra £7 a week reduction for each child.

Find out more about how child maintenance is calculated on GOV.UKOpens in a new window

If the paying parent’s gross weekly income is between £200 and £3,000, and they pay child maintenance for other children, 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%.

Find out more about how child maintenance is calculated on GOV.UKOpens in a new window