Calculate your Child Maintenance on GOV.UK - How to use the Child Maintenance Online Calculator

A step by step guide to using the GOV.UK Child Maintenance Calculator.


One of the first things divorcing couples with children want to know is how much their child support payments will be. This is understandable, the primary concern of the resident parent, that is the parent who the children live with most of the time, is will they be able to afford to look after their children. Whereas the non-resident parent is usually concerned about how they will manage their finances overall because they are now likely to incur additional property costs.

The purpose of child maintenance is to provide support for a child’s everyday living costs. The non-resident parent must make payments to the resident parent, who is responsible for the child’s day-to-day care.

There are three ways to determine how much child support payments will be:

1. Decide informally with your ex-partner.
2. Hire solicitors to help you reach an agreement.
3. Have the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculate the amount.

Working out child support payments with your ex-partner is a practical method; consider using a mediation service if you are having difficulty communicating. However, this informal approach carries a level of uncertainty, as either party can revisit the amount at any time in the future.

Agreeing on child support payments using the help of solicitors will be costly but may be necessary if your finances are complicated. You can also ask the court to make the child maintenance payments legally binding. This approach might be useful if you anticipate becoming increasingly wealthy. The downside is that if your circumstances take a turn for the worst, you would still be legally required to pay the agreed amount.

How the CMS Calculates Child Support Payments

The Child Maintenance Service follows six steps to calculate the amount of child support you will pay. The amount is reviewed every year and can change based on changes in income or family circumstances. For clarity, the video is based on the non-resident partner going through the process.

[gerolddo]

I ask about the reason for the high pay for my kid's, you explained it very clear to me, thank you for that.👍.
To bad that dad's have no control or a system to know if the money will be spend on them or not, because most men knows that the mother will spend the money for herself.

[childmaintenanceuk]

The CMS calculator is inaccurate. It is also misleading, as there is no seperate screen for inputting pension information, and most do not notice it asks you to deduct it from the income screen.

[njco]

Hello I cannot seem to see the excel calculator is this still available? thx

[chrispoplar]

I can't seem to find the real man's divorce calculator in the link ?

[rfland]

The amount of maintenance paid is based on the 'Taxable' amount earn, so does this mean if i earn £30, 000 my taxable income is £17, 500 so is this what should be entered as income?

[gerolddo]

How come? My outcome with the calculator is 284.80 but CMS say it is 310.34...exsplain this to me, thank you

[Doppo]

The max child maintenance gross weekly is £3000 so your payments is £1257 a month to the other parent does it really take £1250 to provide for one child’s food clothing school meals etc...
Also furloughed people on 80% pay still have to pay the full amount even though there on 20% less a month pay it’s just unrealistic model

[alangordon]

Corrupt organisation. It should be your net income .