Child maintenance after divorce

Does one parent have to pay child maintenance to the other following separation?

It is always possible to reach your own agreement about child maintenance (sometimes called child periodical payments, i.e. the day-to-day expenses relating to a child) after divorce as parents without the involvement of anyone else.

Where an agreement cannot be reached then child maintenance is, in most cases, dealt with by the Child Maintenance Service rather than by the court, where the children are spending more time with one parent than the other.  There is a formula to determine the amount payable, which will depend on the payer's income, the number of children the payer has with the payee, how the children divide their time between each parent, and whether the payer has other children.  There is a calculator available on the government's website (link here) to estimate the child maintenance payable in different circumstances.

However, if the payer's gross income is more than £156,000 per annum or if one of the parents lives abroad then general child maintenance will instead be dealt with by the courts. If there is any disagreement about who is to meet other income needs beyond general child maintenance (for example, school fees), then this will also be dealt with by the court.

When it comes to capital claims for children in the context of divorce (for example, a claim for housing or for other lump sums for a child) , these are usually wrapped up into the assessment of how assets should be divided on divorce (see how are assets split as part of divorce?), i.e. there will not usually be any separate additional claims specifically for children following divorce.