Ask Karen: Should the father of my children have to pay maintenance?

A parent who does not have the main day-to-day care of a child (the non-resident parent) should pay child maintenance to the parent who does have the main day-to-day care (the parent with care).

However, the maintenance does not have to be paid through the Child Support Agency. There are three ways you can arrange to receive child maintenance which are as follows: 1. Through a private agreement 2. Through the Child Support Agency 3. Through a Court order A private agreement is where you agree with the other parent how much should be paid and how often. You don’t have to involve the Child Support Agency or any other organisation to set up a private agreement, but you may want to speak to a solicitor or the Child Support Agency for a guide as to how much should be paid. You could also visit the Child Support Agency website (www.csa.gov.uk).

Even if you have a private agreement you can still apply to the Child Support Agency at any time.

Either parent can apply at any time to the Child Support Agency to work out how much is payable and to set up arrangements for payment.

The Child Support Agency will ask both parents for information and use it to work out how much maintenance should be paid.

They can then collect the payments and pass them on to the parent with care. If payments are late, the Child Support Agency can also take action to collect them.

In certain circumstances you can arrange child maintenance through a court order. This can only be done if there is an agreement. However, getting a court order can be expensive and you will need to pay court fees so you should speak to a family law solicitor first. Generally, a court order is only used if there are already ongoing court proceedings such as divorce. If you get a court order you then cannot apply to the Child Support Agency for 12 months following the date of the order.

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