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Other children

What happens if the non-resident parent has to pay for other children?

If a non-resident parent has to pay child maintenance to more than one parent with care, we work out the total amount of child maintenance for all of the children who the non-resident parent has to support. The amount that the parents with care will receive depends on the number of children they are entitled to get child maintenance for.

What happens if the non-resident parent has other children living with them?

If the non-resident parent or their partner are receiving Child Benefit for other children living with them, and they pay either the basic rate or reduced rate, they generally pay less child maintenance. This is because they also need to pay for the care of the other children living with them. In these circumstances, we work out the amount of maintenance the non-resident parent should pay based on part of their weekly income, instead of all of their weekly income.

If the non-resident parent pays the basic rate

If the non-resident parent pays the basic rate, we will not take account of:

15% of their net weekly income if there is one child living with them
20% of their net weekly income if there are two children living with them
25% of their net weekly income if there are three or more children living with them.

If the non-resident parent pays the reduced rate

If the non-resident parent pays the reduced rate, we use the table below to work out how much child maintenance they should pay.

Number of children needing child maintenance	Number of children living with non-resident parent	Standard amount	Percentage of income over £100 a week, but less than £200, that a non-resident parent pays
1	0	£5, plus	25%
	1	£5, plus	20.5%
	2	£5, plus	19%
	3 or more	£5, plus	17%
2	0	£5, plus	35%
	1	£5, plus	29%
	2	£5, plus	27%
	3 or more	£5, plus	25%
3 or more	0	£5, plus	45%
	1	£5, plus	37.5%
	2	£5, plus	35%
	3 or more	£5, plus	32.5%