Changes to child maintenance

The new system of child maintenance is all about ensuring that parents who live apart understand their responsibilities and take appropriate action to provide financially for their children. Child Maintenance Options provides information and support to help parents choose the child maintenance arrangement which best suits their particular circumstances.

The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act established new and enhanced collection powers, which will supplement the Child Support Agency's existing powers. Some of these new powers are now deployed by the Commission to ensure that parents meet their financial responsibilities and more are planned to be introduced in the future.

Since April 2010, child maintenance has been fully disregarded when calculating all out-of-work benefits. This allows parents with the main day-to-day care of children to keep every penny of their child maintenance payments, without it affecting their entitlement to benefit.

From 2012, the Commission will introduce a new statutory maintenance scheme (the new 'gross income' scheme), based on latest available tax year information from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. Using information from a single source is expected to reduce significantly the time taken to calculate child maintenance. The maintenance award will be fixed for a year unless income varies by more than 25%.