Child Maintenance Solicitors
Ensuring Your Child’s Everyday Needs Are Covered
When you separate, one of the first worries is how your child’s basic needs will be paid for. Food, clothes, childcare, travel, school lunches, clubs and the ordinary costs of daily life can suddenly feel uncertain, particularly if your former partner has always controlled the money, earned far more, or you're worried they may stop contributing once the divorce is final.
At Hilton Spence Family Law, we provide discreet, partner-led advice on child maintenance arrangements for parents who need clarity, structure and reassurance.
Clear Advice on Child Maintenance & Day-to-Day Support
Child maintenance can feel difficult to raise, especially if you have had little control over the family finances or you're worried your former partner may stop contributing once the divorce is final.
We help you understand what child maintenance should cover, how payments may be agreed, when the Child Maintenance Service may become involved, and what further steps may be available if ordinary maintenance doesn't meet your child’s basic needs.
Help with Child Maintenance for Different Family Circumstances
Parents With Less Income
After Separation
If your former partner has been the higher earner, divorce can leave you worried about how everyday costs for your child will be managed. We help you understand what support may be paid, how child maintenance is worked out and how to approach discussions with clarity.
Parents Who've Had Limited Access to Family Finances
Where one parent has controlled the money during the relationship, it can be difficult to know what is fair or realistic. We help you build a clearer picture of your position, so child maintenance discussions are based on proper information rather than guesswork.
Parents Worried Payments May Stop
Some parents feel anxious that financial support may reduce, become inconsistent or stop once the divorce is final. We help you look at how child maintenance can be agreed, recorded and managed, so there is a clearer structure around your child’s day-to-day support.
Parents in High-Income Families
Child maintenance can become more involved where the paying parent has a high income, bonuses, business interests, dividends or other income streams. We provide child maintenance solicitor advice for parents who need regular support to reflect their child’s ordinary needs and the financial resources available.
Concerned about covering your child’s everyday costs?
When money has been difficult to discuss, arranging child maintenance can feel like another source of pressure. We provide discreet, partner-led advice to help you understand what support your child may need and how regular payments can be put in place.
Your Child Maintenance Solicitors in Wirral & Liverpool
Child maintenance discussions happen as part of a wider parental separation, divorce or civil partnership breakdown. They usually sit alongside arrangements for children, conversations about where your child will live, how time with each parent will work, and how wider financial provision for children will be arranged.
Child maintenance is regular financial support paid by one parent to help cover a child’s everyday needs. This usually includes ordinary costs like food, clothing, childcare, travel, school lunches and the routines that keep daily life running.
As a boutique, partner-led family law firm, Hilton Spence Family Law provides clear advice on child maintenance agreements for parents in Wirral, Liverpool and across the North West. We help you understand what can be agreed privately through mediation, when Child Maintenance Service (CMS) may be relevant and when wider financial provision may need to be considered.
Our Offices
We meet clients at our Heswall office on the Wirral or at our Boardroom within the Port of Liverpool Building. Both spaces are private, calm and designed for personal conversations where you can speak freely.
Child maintenance discussions can involve sensitive details around money, parenting and day-to-day care. We make space for those conversations to happen carefully, without pressure or rush.
About Us
Hilton Spence Family Law is focused on family law. We advise parents on child maintenance, financial arrangements after separation and wider children matters.
Our advice is partner-led, personal and discreet. We take the time to understand how your family works in real life, so the support put in place reflects your child’s routine, needs and best interests.
The Child Maintenance
Arrangement Process in the UK
Some parents reach an agreement directly, while others use family mediation or solicitor-led negotiation with family lawyers to create a clearer arrangement. In some cases, you may need to make an application through the Child Maintenance Service, particularly where child maintenance needs to be calculated or collected.
Child maintenance is usually paid to the resident parent to help with the day-to-day care of the child. It may sit alongside a divorce financial settlement, but it is dealt with separately. In situations where the child has additional needs, or where income is high, irregular or unclear, expert child maintenance advice can help you understand how much child maintenance should be paid, how long payments may continue and what happens when a child reaches the age where support may change.
Where parents can't agree, child maintenance solicitors can help you consider whether a legally binding agreement, CMS involvement or wider financial provision may be needed.
Understanding Your Child’s Everyday Costs
We start by looking at your child’s regular needs, including food, clothing, childcare, travel, school lunches, clubs and the routine costs that keep their day-to-day life stable.
Reviewing Each Parent’s Financial Position
We then consider each parent’s income, resources and ability to contribute. Where one parent has controlled the finances, this stage can help bring a clearer picture of what support may be realistic.
Considering Private Agreement & CMS Options
Some parents prefer to agree on child maintenance privately, while others may need the Child Maintenance Service to calculate or collect payments. We help you understand which route may suit your family and what each option means in practice.
Negotiating a Clear Payment Structure
Once the position is clearer, we help negotiate regular payments, payment dates, review points and how any agreed extra costs will be handled.
Recording the Child Maintenance Agreement
Where terms are agreed, we help make sure the arrangement is recorded clearly, so both parents understand what is expected and your child’s basic needs remain properly supported.
Arranging Wider Financial Provision For Your Child
Child maintenance is focused on your child’s needs and welfare, covering the regular costs of day-to-day care.
Alongside this, you may need to consider other support, including lump sums, school trips, school fees, medical costs or contributions towards larger expenses.
Where one parent has significantly greater resources, we can also advise on financial provision for children, helping you explore how wealth can be shared fairly to support your child’s upbringing.
Planning Ahead For Separation
You may not be ready to separate, but you may already be thinking through how your child would be supported if you did. This can feel particularly difficult where your spouse or partner controls the finances, earns significantly more, or you're unsure what money is available.
Early advice doesn't mean you have to start proceedings. It gives you space to understand your position quietly, think through your options and make decisions with a clearer sense of what may happen financially.
Understanding the Financial Picture Early
Before any formal steps are taken, it can help to understand what child maintenance may look like, what income information is relevant and whether wider financial provision for children may need to be considered.
Creating a Practical
Safety Net
Having the right information at hand can make the future feel less uncertain. We help you identify the documents, details and financial questions that may matter, so you have a clearer sense of how your child’s basic needs could be covered if separation becomes the next step.
Making Financial Decisions With the Future in Mind
Decisions made before separation can have a lasting impact. If you're considering private schooling, larger childcare costs, activities or other financial commitments for your child, early advice can help you understand how those choices may be viewed later and whether they could affect a future child maintenance claim or wider financial provision.
I had a meeting with Laura to go over matters with access to my daughter in Court. I can't thank her enough for the help she gave me - professional and very reasonably priced!
Client
Why Choose Hilton Spence Family Law?
Child maintenance can look simple from the outside, but it often sits within a sensitive and personal financial picture. You may be worried about how your child’s basic needs will be met, if payments will be reliable, or how to raise money concerns without making things worse.
At Hilton Spence Family Law, we provide discreet, partner-led advice in a calm and private setting. We take the time to listen properly, understand your concerns and talk through the questions that have been sitting at the back of your mind. No worry is too small if it affects how secure you feel about your child’s future.
We help you approach child maintenance with clarity, whether you need a private child maintenance agreement, advice on CMS, or guidance on when wider financial provision for children may also be needed.
FAQs About Child Maintenance
Child maintenance helps cover a child’s everyday needs. This can include food, clothing, childcare, travel, school lunches, clubs and the ordinary costs that keep daily life running. It is usually paid to the resident parent, meaning the parent who provides most of the day-to-day care. If your child lives mainly with you, the other parent may need to pay child maintenance.
Child maintenance is calculated through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) using the paying parent’s income, the number of children and how much time the child spends with each parent. In some families, parents agree on payments privately instead.
You can get a rough estimate of how much child maintenance you may receive using CMS’ child maintenance calculator. Please note that actual payments could be higher or lower.A private child maintenance agreement is arranged directly between parents, usually with solicitor support. It can set out how much will be paid, when payments will be made, how often the arrangement will be reviewed and how agreed extra costs will be handled.
A private arrangement may be preferred where parents want more flexibility than the Child Maintenance Service can provide. This can help where payments need to reflect childcare, travel, activities, school-related costs, or a paying parent’s income pattern, including bonuses, dividends or business income.
A private child maintenance agreement is not automatically legally binding. If one parent stops paying, it is not usually enforceable in the same way as a CMS arrangement. Where parents are divorcing or dissolving a civil partnership, child maintenance may sometimes be included within a court-approved consent order, although either parent may still be able to ask the Child Maintenance Service to carry out an assessment later.
A family-based arrangement is another name for a private child maintenance agreement. It means parents agree on child maintenance directly between themselves, rather than asking the Child Maintenance Service to calculate or collect payments. It can cover the amount paid, payment dates, review points and how extra costs will be handled.
Where the paying parent has a high income, bonuses, dividends, business interests or other income streams, child maintenance may need closer consideration. A standard CMS calculation may not give the full picture, particularly if income is taken in different ways or varies from year to year.
We can help you understand what financial information may be relevant, whether a private child maintenance agreement could give more flexibility, and whether top-up maintenance or wider financial provision for children should be considered. This can help create an arrangement that reflects your child’s everyday needs and the financial resources available.
If the paying parent stops sending child maintenance, the next steps depend on how the arrangement was made. A private agreement should clearly set out how child maintenance is paid, where it is paid, when it is paid and how much child maintenance is to be paid.
If payments stop, it may be difficult to enforce the agreement unless it has been recorded formally. In some cases, the CMS’ collection service may help you receive child maintenance by collecting payments from the paying parent and passing them on. Legal advice can help you understand whether maintenance will be paid through a private arrangement, CMS involvement or another route.
Child maintenance is financial support for your child’s needs. Spousal maintenance is financial support for a former spouse or civil partner. Both may need to be considered together during wider financial discussions after separation.
Where your child has a disability or additional needs, ordinary child maintenance may not cover the full cost of their day-to-day care. Additional support may be needed for therapy, specialist equipment, medical costs, transport, additional childcare or adapted routines.
If both parents can reach an agreement, these costs may be included within a private child maintenance agreement. Where this is not possible, it may be appropriate to apply to the court for wider financial provision or ask the court to make a court order.
A shared care arrangement can also affect how much child maintenance should be paid and who should pay child maintenance. Our child maintenance solicitors can help you understand your options and work towards the best possible outcome for your child.
Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 is a law that can be used to ask the court for wider financial provision for a child. It is usually considered where ordinary child maintenance doesn't go far enough to meet the child’s needs.
This may include housing support, lump sums, school fees, medical costs or other additional provisions. It can be particularly relevant where one parent has significantly greater financial resources and the child’s needs can't be met through regular maintenance alone.
Child maintenance usually continues until a child reaches 16, or 20 if they remain in approved full-time education or training. In some circumstances, financial support may continue for longer, particularly where a child has additional needs or remains financially dependent. A private child maintenance agreement can also set out review points, so arrangements stay suitable as your child grows.
Yes. In the UK, the usual term is child maintenance. It means regular financial support paid by one parent to help cover a child’s everyday needs. “Child support” is more commonly used in other countries, but people sometimes use both terms to mean the same thing.
In most cases, regular child maintenance is dealt with through the Child Maintenance Service rather than the court. However, there are situations where you may need to apply to the court, particularly where your child needs wider financial support, top-up maintenance, school fees, housing support or other provision. Our child maintenance lawyers can help you understand whether court for child maintenance is the right route.
Child maintenance can vary depending on how many children the paying parent is responsible for. The Child Maintenance Service looks at the children whose maintenance is being paid for, as well as any other children living with the paying parent or other children they financially support.
Those children don't all have to be children of both parents. For example, the paying parent may have children from another relationship, stepchildren living in their household, or a new child with a new partner. This can affect the calculation because the CMS takes into account the paying parent’s wider responsibilities. A private child maintenance agreement can also deal with these circumstances more flexibly, particularly where there are blended families or different financial commitments across households.
Put Clear Child Maintenance Arrangements in Place
If you're concerned about how your child’s everyday needs will be met, early advice can help you feel clearer and more prepared. We provide discreet, partner-led advice on child maintenance agreements, CMS arrangements and wider financial provision where your child needs extra support.
Meet with us at our Heswall office on the Wirral or at our Liverpool Boardroom for a private consultation shaped around your family’s circumstances.