The flat rate of child maintenance is £5 a week - no matter how many children are involved.
The non-resident parent pays a flat rate for child maintenance if:
- their net weekly income is between £5 and £100, or
- they or their partner who they live with gets Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit, or
- they are getting one of the following benefits:
- contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- State Retirement Pension
- Incapacity Benefit
- Carer's Allowance
- Widowed Mother’s Allowance, Widowed Parent's Allowance, Widow's Pension
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Benefit
- Maternity Allowance
- a training allowance approved by the Department for Work and Pensions
- Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments
- a War Disablement or War Widow’s Pension
- Bereavement Allowance
- a social security benefit paid by a country outside the United Kingdom.
Non-resident parents who pay the flat rate because they receive a benefit, pension or allowance will pay no child maintenance if they share the care of a qualifying child for at least 52 nights a year. Non-resident parents who pay the flat rate because they have net weekly income of £100 or less have no further reduction because of shared care and they continue to pay £5.
An exception to this rule is if a non-resident parent is liable for child maintenance to more than one parent with care, but does not share the care of all the qualifying children. If this is the case, the non-resident parent will still have to pay the share of the child maintenance due to any parent with care with whom there are no shared care arrangements.
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