Other financial commitments in child maintenance cases

Applying for a variation

Either parent can apply for a variation at any time during the life of a child maintenance case but it will only be accepted on certain grounds and these differ depending on whether you are the paying parent or receiving parent.

The parent who doesn’t have the day-to-day care (the ‘paying parent’) pays child maintenance to the parent or person who does (the ‘receiving parent’).

The only reasons you can apply for a variation are set out below (they are included in child support law). For other changes of circumstances you may have to ask for a mandatory reconsideration or an appeal of the calculation.

• Child maintenance appeals and complaints

Before applying for a variation, you need to think whether you have the proper reasons for doing so and whether CMS is going to agree to one. CMS will always consider the welfare of any child likely to be affected by any variation in payments.

• How child maintenance is calculated

When a paying parent can apply for variation

If you are a paying parent you can ask for certain expenses, which reduce your gross income, to be taken into account. These are called 'special expenses' and are for:

• the cost of keeping in regular contact with the child or children you pay child  maintenance for – for example, the cost of fuel to travel between your home and the child’s home
• costs to support children who live with you if they have a disability or a long-term illness
• repaying debts from the former relationship – for example, if you are paying a car loan for a car the receiving parent has kept
• some boarding school fees for the child or children you pay child maintenance for – but only the everyday living costs or ‘boarding’ part of the fees
• making payments on a mortgage, loan or insurance policy for the home you and the receiving parent used to share – the receiving parent and the child or children must still live in the home and you must have no legal or ‘equitable’ interest in it

All the above special expenses, apart from supporting children who live with you if they have a disability or a long-term illness, must be for more than £10 per week.

If your gross income is less than £7 a week or you are getting benefits, you can’t ask for any special expenses to be taken into account.

Receiving parents cannot apply for a special expenses variation.

When receiving and paying parents can apply for a variation

You can apply for a variation if you think the paying parent has other taxable income that wasn’t taken into account in the initial maintenance calculation. The paying parent can also apply to have this income taken into account. This is called 'additional income' and includes:

• 'unearned' income – such as rent that the paying parent gets from property or land, or dividends and interest from savings and investments - this must be at least £2,500 a year
• 'earned' income – is when the paying parent or their partner is getting benefits (and qualifies to pay flat rate child maintenance) but also has gross income from a pension, employment or self employment - this income must be at least £100 a week
• 'diversion' of income – is when it is thought that the paying parent may be hiding their full income so not all of it is included in the Child Maintenance calculation - for example giving it to someone else, such as their partner, or redirecting their money such as towards a company car, instead of taking a higher salary. 
• if the paying parent has assets worth more than £31,250 

Receiving parents and paying parents can apply for an Asset Variation. Asset Variations that can be considered are:

• any money whether in cash or deposited
• gold, silver or platinum bullion bars and coins
• any virtual money (for example, bitcoin) which is capable of being exchanged for money
• stocks (can also be known as equities), shares and unit trusts
• gilt-edged securities (a bond issued by a government or company as a means of borrowing money)
• land rights
• property
• chose in action (a property right or the right to possession of something that can only be obtained or enforced through legal action)

Whichever parent applies for a variation, CMS will share the information provided with the other parent. This will let them get information from everyone involved, before it makes a decision. CMS will also use other sources of information such as Companies House.

How to apply for a variation

You can apply for a variation at any time and make an application:

• over the phone by contacting CMS
• online through the CMS self service portal if you have registered your case

If the telephone application is complicated, you may be asked to apply in writing on an application form. Provide as much information as possible in your application, including why you are applying.

• Manage your child maintenance case online

When you disagree with the decision

If you disagree with the CMS decision, you have 30 days from that date you were notified to contact them and explain why you think the decision is wrong.

• Child Maintenance Service