Calculate child maintenance
You can use the online calculator to find out how much child maintenance you might pay or receive. The calculated amounts are guidance only for parents living apart. Use the calculations to decide about applying to CMS, making a family-based agreement or asking for a Consent Order.
Service options
If you contacted Child Maintenance Choices and discussed your options with them, you may wish to make an application for statutory child maintenance.
If after having spoken with the Choices Team you would like to consider your options further before making a decision, contact Child Maintenance Service.
How to use the calculator
To use the calculator you'll need to know:
- the paying parent's gross weekly income
- the number of children the maintenance is to be paid for
- the number of nights, on average, the paying parent has the child(children) 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.
The amount of child maintenance worked out by the online calculator may be different from that which the statutory maintenance service works 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.
Circumstances not covered by online calculator
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 £3,000 per week
- paying parents who receive a benefit
- cases where maintenance will be shared between two or more parents with care
- Other financial commitments in child maintenance cases