The paying parent provides child maintenance to help cover their child’s everyday living costs.
Child maintenance legally covers essentials for a stable upbringing: housing, heating, food, and clothing
This payment contributes to the household budget, helping the parent maintain a home rather than funding specific items.
Child maintenance serves as baseline support but rarely covers “extras” or significant one-off costs. Standard maintenance calculations generally exclude school trips, extracurricular activities, uniforms, and expensive hobbies.
Parents use mediation to agree on sharing additional costs beyond regular maintenance via a Family-Based Arrangement.
The CMS calculates payments using the parent’s income and overnight stays, rather than the child’s specific expenses.
The standard CMS calculation excludes school uniforms and one-off expenses, despite their importance to a child’s needs.
CMS sets payments by income, expecting receiving parents to budget for all child costs, including school supplies.
This can often lead to friction if the primary caregiver feels the maintenance amount doesn’t stretch far enough to cover these high-cost items, especially at the start of a new school year.
To avoid conflict, many parents choose to create a separate “top-up” agreement during mediation specifically for these additional costs.
This might involve an agreement to split the cost of school uniforms, sports kits, and school trips 50/50, or in proportion to each parent’s earnings.
Parenting plans clarify expectations, ensuring children have school supplies without parents needing to debate every individual purchase.
The Child Maintenance Service does not backdate claims, so payments only start from the date you apply
The maintenance clock starts when the CMS contacts the paying parent or you submit your application.
You generally cannot claim for past months if you wait to apply until after separating.
Experts recommend filing a formal claim as soon as private arrangements fail to avoid this frustration.
However, a few specific exceptions allow for backdating.
Courts can retrospectively enforce arrears if a parent ignores an existing court-ordered maintenance agreement.
The CMS can backdate increased payments for existing cases if you timely report changes in income.
Formalize agreements or apply to the CMS immediately to protect your child’s support, given strict rules.
In 2026, the CMS calculates maintenance based on the paying parent’s gross weekly income, minus pension contributions.
The Basic Rate applies to £200–£800 weekly earnings: 12% for one child, 16% for two, 19% for three+.
For earnings exceeding £800 up to £3,000, a lower percentage applies to that surplus.
Once this initial figure is reached, two major “deductions” are applied to ensure the payment is fair.
First, the amount is reduced if the paying parent has other children living in their household.
Second, a significant reduction is made for shared care, based on how many nights the child stays with the paying parent each year.
For example, if a child stays overnight between 52 and 103 nights a year (roughly once a week), the weekly maintenance is reduced by 1/7th. This formula ensures that the parent providing direct care during overnight stays is financially credited for the costs they incur during that time.
n 2026, the rules regarding equal shared care are some of the most misunderstood areas of child maintenance. The answer depends entirely on whether you define “equal” as just overnight stays or as overall day-to-day responsibility.
The “Equal Nights” Rule (CMS)
If the children spend an exactly equal number of nights with both parents (182.5 nights each per year), the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) typically treats this as a “Nil Rate” assessment. Equal overnight care means neither parent is non-resident, so neither side pays statutory maintenance.
The “Day-to-Day” Responsibility Test
However, the CMS can still order payments even with equal nights if one parent can prove they provide more day-to-day care. The CMS looks at who handles the “heavy lifting” of parenting, such as:
- Who is the main point of contact for the school and doctor?
- Who organizes and pays for the clothes, hair appointments, and school trips?
- Who receives the Child Benefit? (The CMS often defaults to the Child Benefit recipient as the “person with care”).
CMS designates a paying parent if one covers more costs, then discounts payments by half plus £7 weekly.
The Court’s Role (OS v DT 2025 Ruling)
A significant legal development in 2025 (OS v DT) confirmed that if the CMS refuses to act because care is exactly equal, the Family Court has the power to step in. If there is a large income gap—for example, if one parent earns £100,000 and the other earns £20,000—the lower-earning parent can apply to the court for “Top-Up” maintenance to ensure the children enjoy a similar standard of living in both homes.
Summary: If you truly share everything 50/50—including the costs, the admin, and the nights—usually no maintenance is paid. If there is a major imbalance in either the “workload” of parenting or the parents’ incomes, a claim can still be made through the CMS or the courts.
In 2026, travel expenses are handled as a “variation” to the standard child maintenance calculation. If you are the paying parent and you incur significant costs to travel to see your children—such as fuel, train fares, or even basic overnight accommodation—you can apply to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) for a “Special Expenses Variation.“ To qualify, these contact costs must typically average at least £10 per week.
If approved, the CMS doesn’t simply subtract the travel cost from your monthly bill; instead, they reduce your “gross income” figure by that amount before calculating the percentage you owe.
This means the actual reduction in your payment will be a fraction of what you actually spend on travel (for example, if you pay the 12% rate, your bill might drop by £1.20 for every £10 you spend on fuel).
It is important to note that the CMS will only consider the direct cost of the journey itself. The CMS treats meal and car costs as general living expenses, excluding them from maintenance calculations.
Because the statutory “discount” for travel is often quite small, many parents find it more effective to use mediation to agree on a private “Family-Based Arrangement.” In these cases, parents can agree to share the burden of travel more equitably—for example, by meeting halfway for handovers or by the receiving parent contributing toward the fuel costs—which can be far more practical than waiting for a formal CMS variation.
The short and very firm answer is no. In the eyes of the law, child maintenance and child contact are two entirely separate issues.
One is a financial obligation, while the other is the child’s legal right to have a relationship with both parents. You cannot legally “pay-to-play,” nor can you withhold contact as a way to “debt collect” or punish an ex-partner for non-payment.
Family courts strongly disapprove of using children as bargaining chips, as this harms their best interests.
If your ex-spouse stops paying maintenance, your legal remedy is to contact the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to initiate enforcement action, which can include deducting money directly from their wages or bank account.
If you unilaterally stop contact because of the lack of payments, you could find yourself in legal trouble—especially if there is a Child Arrangements Order in place.
Violating a court order regarding contact can lead to serious consequences, including being held in contempt of court.
The best approach is to keep the financial dispute with the CMS and, if the lack of support is causing genuine hardship that affects your ability to facilitate contact (such as travel costs), address those specific logistical issues through mediation rather than stopping contact altogether.
Just as with the reverse scenario, the legal answer is a definitive no. In England and Wales, your legal duty to pay child maintenance is separate from visitation rights.
By law, maintenance is a child’s right to support from both parents, regardless of their relationship.
You will accrue CMS debt if you stop payments, even if contact is reduced or stopped.
The CMS has significant powers to recover this debt, including taking it directly from your wages. They will not accept “lack of contact” as a valid reason for non-payment.
If your ex-spouse is blocking contact, your legal remedy lies with the Family Court. You should seek to resolve the contact issue by filing for a Child Arrangements Order or attending mediation to understand the root of the problem.
Withholding money often escalates the conflict and can actually harm your case in court, as a judge may view it as an attempt to use financial pressure to control the other parent.
The court expects you to continue supporting your child financially while simultaneously using the correct legal channels to enforce your right to a relationship with them.