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Calculate Child Maintenance

If you'd like to know how much maintenance you might pay or receive, you can use the online calculator. It is intended only for guidance, to help parents who live apart make a decision about whether to apply to us for a calculation or to reach a private agreement.

Service options

If you have already contacted Child Maintenance Choices and discussed your options with them, you may wish to make an application for child maintenance. You can start the process here.

If you would like to consider your options further before making a decision you can contact Child Maintenance Choices.

How to use this service

To use the calculator you'll need to know:

  • the paying parent's net weekly income (there’s an online tool to help you work this out)
  • the number of children the maintenance is to be paid for
  • the number of nights, on average, the paying parent has the child(ren) for each year
  • the number of other children living in the paying parent’s household

The calculator can give you an indication of the amount of maintenance that might be payable with an arrangement through the Child Maintenance Service.

The amount of child maintenance worked out by the online calculator may be different from the child maintenance that the statutory maintenance service worked out and asked a paying parent to pay, or the amount that has been agreed in court as part of a consent order. This should not be used as grounds for appealing against a decision or for asking a court to change a consent order.

There are a number of circumstances which are not covered by the online calculator. These include when the paying parent's income is greater than £2,000 per week, paying parents who receive a benefit, cases where maintenance will be shared between two or more parents with care and variations for exceptional circumstances.

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