Maintenance reviews and appeals

In any child maintenance case, we gather information from both parents about their income and family circumstances and use this information to work out how much child maintenance should be paid to the parent with care. We then send a letter to both parents to tell them our decision on what this amount is and when it should be paid.

If you think this decision is wrong, you have the right to appeal against it. You should do this within one month of the date of the letter that tells you about our decision.

An appeal is a formal process, where an independent tribunal, organised by The Appeals Service, will take another look at the decision. It may take a long time to come to a result.

Instead of appealing, you can ask us either to explain our decision or to look at the decision again. This is a less formal process and is often a quicker and better way of correcting a decision that you think seems to have overlooked some important facts.