Paying Maintenance or Child Support

Many parents when they split from their partners find themselves paying maintenance or child support to help with the cost of bringing up their children. This figure - which can be agreed by the parents on an amicable level - is designed to help the parent looking after the children cope with the financial strain after the other parent has left the marital home and thus ceased to contribute a salary.

Arranging to Pay Maintenance

Paying maintenance is the more amicable way of ensuring that your children are carried for should you and your partner separate. This is an agreed payment made either weekly, fortnightly or monthly by the partner who has moved out and this payment is also agreed between both parties to ensure that it is not only sufficient to help with the costs of bringing up the children but that it also does not leave the maintenance payer in a difficult financial position.

Often maintenance is paid and worked out between two parents who have mutually agreed that a separation or a divorce is the right thing to do and in these instances the paying of maintenance usually goes ahead without incident.

Paying Child Support

You may have considered Maintenance and Child Support to be one in the same; however they are two very different procedures are often employed in very different circumstances.

Child Support is a sum of money that the government - under the auspices of the Child Support Agency - legally require any parent leaving children at home to pay. This figure is calculated on the Child Support payer's income and outgoings and is normally paid monthly into the bank account of the person looking after the children.

Unfortunately over the years there have been issues with the accuracy of such calculations and therefore it is important to ensure that where possible an agreement is reached between two separating parents to ensure no intervention from the Child Support Agency is necessary.

What Happens if I don't pay Maintenance?

If you have entered into an agreement with your ex-partner as to the paying of maintenance then you should - wherever possible - maintain this agreement. If for any reason you are struggling to make the payments either on time or because of a problem with your own finances it is best to try and talk the matter through and come to some understanding. Perhaps a reduction in maintenance payments for a time until your problems are resolved is in order?

If you do not pay maintenance and make no effort to communicate your reasons why then your partner can pursue the payment of this money - plus any outstanding payments - through the Child Support Agency. They will require you to complete a series of forms and attend an interview at which time your partner will be asked to attend in order to ascertain why he or she has not being making the correct payments - or indeed - why they have not been making any payments at all?

The Child Support Agency can - and often do - aim to retrieve these maintenance payments and can do so by using a method known as an 'Attachment to Earnings'. This means that if you are salaried monthly then the value of your maintenance - or Child Support as it is known when dealing with this government agency - will be deducted from your salary at source. In short your employer will be contacted by the Child Support Agency and instructed (and this is a legally binding request) to deduct the value of such monies from your salary before you receive it into your bank. This is designed to ensure that the money is received.

Again as we have already mentioned it is best to try and resolve such matters between both parents. This makes for an altogether more amicable solution and also alleviates the need for arguments and ill-feeling which is important especially where children are concerned.

If you require further information on maintenance and Child Support and how the scheme works you should contact the Child Support Agency or visit their website at www.csa.gov.uk.