Child maintenance: how it is worked out and what is changing

How the amount is worked out

The Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance using the paying parent's gross weekly income. The starting point is gross weekly income, which is income before tax and National Insurance are taken off. From that figure, adjustments are made for pension contributions and for other children in the paying parent's household. Those adjustments matter because they change the income figure that the rest of the calculation is built on. Once the adjusted gross weekly income is settled, the rate band is identified. The rate band determines which set of percentages applies. The percentage is then applied to the income figure, and the result is the starting amount before shared care is considered.

Shared care is the next step. The calculation is reduced according to the number of nights a year the child stays with the paying parent, known as shared care. The more nights of shared care, the larger the reduction. After that, any variation is applied. A variation can change the amount where there are additional costs or specific circumstances that the standard calculation does not capture. The order matters: income first, then adjustments, then the rate band, then the percentage, then shared care, then any variation. Each step feeds the next, so a change at the start of the process changes the final figure.

The basic rate is one of several rate bands. Income above a threshold is treated differently, so a paying parent with higher gross weekly income does not simply pay the basic rate percentage on the whole amount. The bands exist to make the calculation proportionate across different income levels. If you want to see how the figures apply in your own circumstances, the calculator on GOV.UK gives an estimate rather than a decision. It is a starting point for understanding the likely range, not a determination by the Child Maintenance Service. Only the Child Maintenance Service can make a decision on a case.

Direct Pay or Collect and Pay

There are two service types. Direct Pay, where the Child Maintenance Service calculates the amount and the parents arrange payment between themselves. Collect and Pay, where the Child Maintenance Service collects the payment from the paying parent and passes it to the receiving parent. The default option is for a case to be placed on the Direct Pay service. That means most new cases begin with the parents handling the transfer of money directly, while the Child Maintenance Service handles the calculation. Direct Pay keeps the parents in control of the payment method and timing, but it also means the service is not involved in whether the money actually moves.

If payments are missed under Direct Pay, the receiving parent must inform the Child Maintenance Service, and the case may be moved to Collect and Pay. That reporting step is essential. The Department for Work and Pensions does not measure the compliance of paying parents on the Direct Pay service. The Child Maintenance Service monitors payments made through the Collect and Pay service only. So if nothing is reported, nothing is recorded, and no action follows. A receiving parent who does not report missed payments should not expect the case to move on its own.

Collect and Pay carries fees that apply on Collect and Pay for both parents. The paying parent pays a fee on top of the maintenance, and the receiving parent has a fee deducted from the amount passed on. Those fees are the trade-off for the service handling the money and monitoring each payment. The scale of the two routes is visible in the figures. During the quarter ending March 2026, 405.1 million pounds of child maintenance was due to be paid through either Direct Pay or Collect and Pay. 292.3 million pounds was arranged through Direct Pay and 112.8 million pounds through Collect and Pay. In the quarter ending March 2026, 240,000 paying parents were due to pay via the Collect and Pay service. There was a 17 percent increase in the amount of money arranged to be paid through Collect and Pay, from 376.1 million pounds in the year ending March 2025 to 440.6 million pounds in the year ending March 2026.

Shared care, and where disputes start

Shared care is one of the most contested parts of the system. The calculation is reduced according to the number of nights a year the child stays with the paying parent, known as shared care. The reduction is applied in bands, so a certain number of nights produces a certain reduction, and a higher number of nights produces a larger one. The bands mean the reduction steps up rather than rising smoothly night by night. For a paying parent, more nights of care mean a lower amount. For a receiving parent, more nights of care with the other parent mean less maintenance, because the costs of the child are shared across two households for those nights.

The friction comes from the fact that the calculation uses the expected pattern rather than what actually happens. The Child Maintenance Service works from the pattern of care that is expected, and the amount is set on that basis. Where the reality differs from the expected pattern, the calculation does not automatically follow the reality. That is a common source of complaint. A parent who has the child more often than the recorded pattern, or less often, may find the amount does not reflect the actual arrangement. Changing the recorded pattern usually requires the parents to agree it or for the Child Maintenance Service to be given the information it needs to reassess.

Because shared care directly changes the amount, disputes about nights are disputes about money. A disagreement about how many nights a child stays can shift the calculation in either direction. That is why shared care sits at the centre of many cases that end up in dispute. The practical point is that the number of nights recorded drives the reduction, and the recorded number is what the service uses. If the pattern changes, the record needs to change with it for the calculation to follow.

When payments are missed

When payments are missed, the enforcement route begins with contacting the Child Maintenance Service. On Direct Pay, the receiving parent must report the missed payments for anything to happen. Once a case is on Collect and Pay, the service is already handling the money and can see what has and has not been paid. From there, the Child Maintenance Service has a range of powers to collect arrears, including deduction from earnings orders, deduction orders against bank accounts and liability orders granted by the courts. A deduction from earnings order takes money directly from the paying parent's wages. A deduction order against a bank account takes money from an account. A liability order is granted by the courts and opens the way to further enforcement.

The sequence matters, and it takes time. Each step has its own process, and the service generally moves through them in order rather than jumping to the most serious measure. After a liability order, bailiff action and further sanctions can follow. The point to hold on to is that enforcement is a process with stages, not a single switch. A receiving parent waiting for arrears should expect the route to run over a period rather than resolve immediately. A paying parent facing enforcement should expect each stage to be documented and to follow from the last.

Arrears are a persistent feature of the system. Parents who have no ongoing liability remain in the caseload if arrears are still due. That means a case can stay open long after the regular payments have stopped, because the money owed has not been cleared. Arrears remain due even where ongoing liability has ended. The caseload therefore includes cases that are active and cases that exist only to recover what is outstanding. In the quarter ending June 2025 the Child Maintenance Service managed 780,000 arrangements, and a paying parent can have more than one child maintenance arrangement, so the number of arrangements is not the same as the number of parents involved.

What is changing

The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed its intention to remove the Direct Pay service and move to a single enhanced Collect and Pay service, under which the Child Maintenance Service would monitor every payment. Under that model, the service would see each payment as it is made, rather than relying on a receiving parent to report a missed Direct Pay payment. The compliance gap that exists on Direct Pay, where the Department for Work and Pensions does not measure the compliance of paying parents, would close if every payment ran through the service. The 17 percent increase in the amount arranged through Collect and Pay, from 376.1 million pounds in the year ending March 2025 to 440.6 million pounds in the year ending March 2026, shows the direction the caseload has already been moving.

This change requires legislation. It is a proposal, not a done deal, and it is not yet in force. No date can be given for it, because the legislation has to pass before anything changes on the ground. Until then, the two service types continue to operate as they do now, with Direct Pay as the default and Collect and Pay as the route where the service handles the money. Anyone reading about the reform should treat it as an intention that depends on Parliament, not as a change already made.

The pressure for reform is not new. The House of Lords Public Services Committee concluded in October 2025 that the Child Maintenance Service needs fundamental reform. That conclusion sits alongside the confirmed intention to move to a single enhanced service. Both point in the same direction, but neither changes the current rules. Quarterly Child Maintenance Service statistics are published in March, June, September and December. Statistics covering data to June 2026 were published on 29 September 2026. Those releases are where the figures on amounts due, service split and caseload are updated.

If the service gets it wrong

If the service gets it wrong, there is a complaints route. Complaining about service is separate from disputing a calculation, which has its own mandatory reconsideration route. A service complaint covers how the case was handled, such as delays, poor communication or administrative errors. A dispute about the amount is a different process and goes through mandatory reconsideration. Keeping the two apart matters, because the wrong route can slow down the response. If the issue is the figure, the calculation dispute route applies. If the issue is the handling, the complaints route applies.

The scale of upheld complaints is significant. The Independent Case Examiner received 1,145 complaints about the Child Maintenance Service in 2025/26 and issued 790 decision letters, of which 527, or 67 percent, were upheld or partially upheld. This was the highest uphold rate of any DWP service. That figure is a measure of how often the examiner, looking at a complaint after the service has had its say, found that something had gone wrong or partly wrong. It does not mean every case is mishandled, but it does show that a substantial share of complaints that reach a decision are found to have merit.

Applications to the Child Maintenance Service incur a 20 pound application fee, with exceptions including applicants who have experienced domestic abuse and those under a specified age. The fee applies at the point of application, and the exceptions mean not every applicant pays it. For anyone weighing up the process, the fee and the exceptions are part of the practical picture, alongside the calculation, the service type and the enforcement route. The GOV.UK child maintenance calculator provides an estimate and is not a decision by the Child Maintenance Service, so it can help with understanding the likely amount but it does not settle anything.

Source: GOV.UK: Child Maintenance Service.

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Frequently asked questions

How is child maintenance calculated?

The Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance using the paying parent's gross weekly income. On the basic rate the paying parent pays 12 percent of gross weekly income for one child, 16 percent for two children and 19 percent for three or more children. The calculation is reduced according to the number of nights a year the child stays with the paying parent, known as shared care.

What is the difference between Direct Pay and Collect and Pay?

Direct Pay is where the Child Maintenance Service calculates the amount and the parents arrange payment between themselves. Collect and Pay is where the Child Maintenance Service collects the payment from the paying parent and passes it to the receiving parent. The default option is for a case to be placed on the Direct Pay service.

What happens if payments are missed under Direct Pay?

If payments are missed under Direct Pay, the receiving parent must inform the Child Maintenance Service, and the case may be moved to Collect and Pay. The Department for Work and Pensions does not measure the compliance of paying parents on the Direct Pay service, and the Child Maintenance Service monitors payments made through the Collect and Pay service only.

How does shared care affect the amount?

The calculation is reduced according to the number of nights a year the child stays with the paying parent, known as shared care. The reduction is applied in bands. The calculation uses the expected pattern rather than what actually happens, which is a common source of complaint.

What powers does the Child Maintenance Service have to collect arrears?

The Child Maintenance Service has a range of powers to collect arrears, including deduction from earnings orders, deduction orders against bank accounts and liability orders granted by the courts. Bailiff action and further sanctions can follow a liability order. Parents who have no ongoing liability remain in the caseload if arrears are still due.