Who Pays Child Maintenance When You Share Custody?

Who pays child maintenance when you agree to share the parenting of your children after a separation or divorce?

It’s essential to understand the law on child support before finalising your divorce financial court order or reaching a childcare agreement.

Our Northwest family law solicitors can help you understand how child maintenance works and assist you in reaching a parenting agreement or financial settlement.

For specialist family law advice, call Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.

Who pays child maintenance when the parenting of children is shared?

If you poll parents on the question of who pays child maintenance when parenting is shared, most parents assume that the parent who earns more will be responsible for paying child maintenance.

That’s not correct. Under the complex child maintenance law rules, if both parents equally share the care of their children, neither parent will be required to pay child maintenance to the other parent.

This child maintenance rule can lead to two problems:

1. Parents not wanting to agree to shared parenting because they don’t want to lose out on child support or can’t afford to do so.
2. Parents saying they want to parent equally but not doing so in practice, or the child spending an equal amount of time at each parent’s home but not getting the same quality of parental care and attention at both parents’ homes.

These problems can result in more parental disputes about the best childcare arrangements for their children or child arrangement order applications for the court to decide if parenting should be shared equally.

What difference does shared care make to child maintenance payments?

If you share the care of your children, then it can make the difference between:

• Receiving hundreds of pounds each month for your children in child support and receiving no child maintenance at all. That can mean the difference between being able to afford to work part time and having to work overtime to pay your household bills, or
• Paying hundreds of pounds each month for your children in child maintenance. This can mean that a parent cannot afford to pay child support and pay the mortgage or rent on a suitable home near their child’s school, or afford for their children to have the same sort of lifestyle that they enjoy with their other parent.

That is why both parents must understand their respective roles and responsibilities regarding shared parenting and child maintenance before agreeing on a parenting regime and child maintenance arrangements.

Child benefit and the payment of child maintenance 

It was thought that if one parent receives the child benefit money, their entitlement to the child benefit payment automatically means they are the parent who is entitled to ask for child maintenance from the other parent. One father challenged that assumption. The child maintenance tribunal decided that:

• Child maintenance is only payable if one of the parents is classed under child maintenance rules as the ‘non-resident parent, or in other words, there isn’t an equal shared care arrangement. This means that the other parent is classed under child maintenance rules as the ’parent with care.’
• If there is no evidence to the contrary on shared care, then if the person applying for child support receives the child benefit payments, it is assumed that they are the ‘parent with care.’ This assumption isn’t relevant if both parents equally share the care of the children.
• The day-to-day care provided by each parent must be evaluated. The evaluation isn’t just about counting the nights the children stay with each parent, but also about assessing tasks and responsibilities.
• If there is equal responsibility for the day-to-day care of the children, then no child maintenance is payable, even if one parent earns a lot more than the other parent.

Factors to consider when negotiating parenting arrangements and child maintenance

Here are some factors to consider when negotiating parenting arrangements and child maintenance:

1. What type of child care arrangement meets your child’s needs? Some children cope better than others with an equal shared care arrangement. How do the practicalities of commute and work commitments impact how you will share the parenting time and childcare?

2. If you do equally share the care of the children and child support isn’t paid, how will this impact the finances of both parents?

1. Will one parent be paying spousal maintenance to the other parent and, if so, how long for?
2. Will one parent be receiving more than half of the equity in the family home to rehouse themselves because they earn less than the other parent?

With specialist legal advice from a Manchester divorce solicitor on your best divorce and financial options, many parents can agree a financial settlement that meets both families’ needs. The lawyer can then draw up a financial consent order, ensuring that both parents have the certainty and legal protection of a court order.

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What counts as shared care of children for child maintenance payments?

Shared care is as individual as families. It is a question of what works for a particular family. Some families agree on:

• A week on, week off schedule so the children spend a week with each parent, or
• A day on, day off schedule so the children never spend more than a day away from each parent, save for holidays, or
• Sharing an au pair or nanny so that the child care support moves with the children to provide continuity.

These types of shared care arrangements can work better for some families than the more traditional 3-day/4-day split, where one week is spent on the 3-day schedule and then swapped with the 4-day schedule in the second week.

The shared care arrangement that works best for a family can depend on:

• Distances between family homes.
• If a family has children with different or competing needs. For example, if one child has special educational needs or there is a significant age gap.
• New relationships and stepchildren.
• The practicalities of managing work and child care commitments combined with the daily commute and school run.

Experience as a Manchester divorce solicitor has shown that any type of shared care arrangement can be beneficial for children, provided their parents are happy with the arrangements, commit to co-parenting and parenting routines, and share the highs and inevitable occasional lows of parenting.

What happens if we stop or start sharing the care of the children?

If, for whatever reason, you stop or start sharing the care of your children, then child maintenance could either stop or start. That is because, in most situations, you can apply to the Child Maintenance Service for child support at any stage.

If child care arrangements change, then a parent may be able to ask the child maintenance service to either stop the requirement to pay child support or to vary the amount paid in child maintenance.

That’s why, when looking at your housing options and finances on separation, it is sensible to factor in possible changes in child support in future.

Manchester & Cheshire-based Evolve Family Law solicitors are approachable and friendly, providing pragmatic and expert solutions for divorce, children, and financial settlements.

For specialist family law advice, call Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.