The Child Maintenance Service opened in 2012 and now manages all new applications for a statutory arrangement. Child maintenance is usually paid by the non-resident parent to the resident parent and it is about providing help and support towards your child/children's everyday living costs. It includes things like food and clothes, and helping to provide a home for your child or children.

About the Child Maintenance Service

The Child Maintenance Service uses slightly different rules to the Child Support Agency. The CSA manages statutory arrangements set up before December 2013. The Child Maintenance Service encourages parents, if they can, to make an arrangement between themselves by agreeing the amount and type of child maintenance paid. This is known as a family-based arrangement. A child maintenance calculator can be accessed via the Child Maintenance Options website to work out how much the paying or receiving parent will pay or receive. It is good to use as a benchmark between parents to conduct their own assessment.

When parents cannot organise payments between themselves

The statutory Child Maintenance Service is for separated parents who can't sort out child maintenance between themselves and, its assessors will only get involved if a parent asks them to. Providing accurate, up-to-date information relating to a claim enables CMS staff to process an application more easily. Without this information, the correct amount of maintenance payment cannot be worked out and processed. With Maintenance Direct and Direct Pay, the paying parent can pay the other parent directly, once a child maintenance amount has been calculated. A 20% collection fee on top of the usual child maintenance amount is added for paying parents using the Collect & Pay service. A 4% collection fee is deducted from their usual child maintenance amount for receiving parents using the Collect & Pay service. A £20 application fee is charged for either parent applying to the statutory scheme.

Child Maintenance Options

Child Maintenance Options is a free service provided on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. Child Maintenance Options is separate from the Child Maintenance Service and is the first port of call when finding out which is the best way to make child maintenance arrangements. It can give free impartial information and support to help parents make informed choices and decisions. It can also give information about applying to the CMS statutory scheme and using Direct Pay and Collect & Pay.

The guidelines are set out on the Child Maintenance Options website and help answer any questions and concerns parents may have about making a maintenance claim. It also gives helpful advice on coping with separation and dealing with your emotions. As well as more practical elements such as taking control of your finances, housing rights and options and organising mediation. Information available also covers areas concerning tracing, maintenance calculation and dealing with disputes.