Child maintenance: a guide to statements for receiving and paying parents
This guidance explains child maintenance statements for parents who receive child maintenance and parents who pay child maintenance.
Documents
Details
About this guidance
We send a statement to parents who receive and pay child maintenance every year to help you to keep track of your child maintenance payments.
This guidance tells you everything you need to understand your statement. It explains what the different parts of the statement are and more about the terms we use in it.
Find out more about managing your child maintenance case.
Important information
This guidance does not cover every circumstance. It only refers to the statutory child maintenance scheme provided by the Child Maintenance Service. It does not refer to any child maintenance schemes provided by the Child Support Agency.
We have done our best to make sure the leaflet is correct as of 28 October 2013, but it may not reflect changes to the law or to our procedures after this date. You may want to get independent advice before making financial decisions based on the content of this guidance.
About us
The Child Maintenance Service is the government’s statutory child maintenance service. We work out, collect and pay out child maintenance payments on behalf of some separated parents in England, Wales and Scotland.
Our role is to make sure that parents who live apart from their children contribute towards their children’s upkeep by paying child maintenance.
What is child maintenance?
Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs.
In most cases, the parent who does not have the main day-to-day care of the child pays child maintenance to the parent who does have the main day-to-day care. In child support law the parent who receives child maintenance is known as the ‘parent with care’ - we call them the ‘receiving parent’ – and the parent who pays child maintenance is known as the ‘non-resident parent’ – we call them the ‘paying parent’. In some cases, the receiving person can be a grandparent or guardian.
If they live in Scotland, a child aged 12 to 19 and in full-time, non-advanced education or training can apply for child maintenance.
Useful information
Help and information
If you want to know more about child maintenance, read Manage your Child Maintenance Service case.
You can find information and guidance here, and find out more about our services.
Other languages
If English is not your first language, you can use your own interpreter or one that we provide. Call us on 0845 266 8792 for more information.