Child Maintenance Options

Child Maintenance Options provides impartial information and support to help both parents make an informed choice about child maintenance. www.cmoptions.org

What is child maintenance?

Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards the child’s everyday living costs.

The parent who does not have main day-to-day care of the child pays child maintenance to the parent who does have main day-to-day care. In some cases, this person can be a grandparent or guardian.

Your options

There are three ways to arrange to pay or receive child maintenance:

1. A private agreement

This is a flexible agreement between both parents on how to provide child maintenance for their children.

• It’s free to set up
• There are no rules to follow and no-one else has to be involved
• Parents agree between themselves on how much payments should be, and when they should be made
• Payments can be in cash or ‘in kind' (for example, by providing clothes, school equipment or holidays)
• A private agreement is not generally legally binding

2. The Child Support Agency

The Child Support Agency (CSA) is the government’s child maintenance service. It’s free to use and will:

• Trace the other parent if their address is unknown
• Work out the amount that should be paid and collect payments
• Enforce payments if the parent without day-to-day care falls behind or refuses to pay
• Allow parents to avoid contact with each other, if they wish

3. A consent order or minute of agreement

A consent order (or a minute of agreement in Scotland) is an official, legally binding child maintenance arrangement.

• There are legal costs involved
• The maintenance figure has to be jointly agreed by both parents
• Payments can be enforced by a court or sheriff officer if things go wrong

More information

The Child Maintenance Options service can talk you through all of these ways of paying or receiving child maintenance. It’s completely impartial and here to help both parents, as well as friends and family.

You can call the team on 0800 988 0988. Lines are open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 4pm Saturday.

Click here to visit the website or click here to download the Getting Started leaflet for more detailed information.

Child Maintenance Options also provides useful starting points such as a child maintenance calculator and a private agreement form. 

If you live in Northern Ireland, you can contact the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division for an impartial information and support service.

Relate for Parents & Families is not responsible for content on external websites and providing this link does not necessarily mean they Relate supports the content, views or organisations associated.