The Child Maintenance Service is for parents who have not been able to make a private arrangement about how their child’s living costs will be paid. The payments are a fixed amount on a schedule.

The Child Maintenance Service can:

• work out child maintenance payment amounts (you can do this yourself with the calculator)
• arrange for the other parent to pay child maintenance and take action if payments are not made
• help find the other parent (they’ll need information from you and will not be able to set up a case if they cannot be found)
• sort out disagreements about parentage
• look at the payments if changes in parents’ circumstances are reported
• You can switch to arranging child maintenance yourself later on

Contact Child Maintenance Options before you apply. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm.

They’ll discuss your maintenance arrangements with you, give you a reference number and explain how to apply.