Impending Changes to Child Maintenance

Child maintenance is financial support designed to provide assistance towards the living costs of children when their parents have separated. It is estimated that the current method of agreeing child maintenance currently costs £74 million in running costs, alone, per annum.

It has also been suggested that the existing child maintenance system removes “responsibility away from parents, encouraging conflicts and hostility at a cost to the taxpayer”.

As a result, the government are to send single parents who pay and receive child maintenance through the existing system letters which advise them of changes to their arrangements.

The letters will advise parents that they are to agree child maintenance payments amicably or face a charge which will see the parent paying the child maintenance have a 20 percent fee added to the maintenance payments; whilst the parent receiving the maintenance will be required to pay a four percent fee to receive the money.

It has also been revealed that all single parents will be required to pay an upfront fee of £20 to register with the new service which is set to come in to force later this year.

At Royds LLP, we are experienced in handling a range of child maintenance and financial issues following the breakdown of a relationship and we are therefore ideally placed to assist you with your financial matters.

To find out how we can assist you, contact Patrick Hart in our Family Law team today.