Shared parenting recognised at last in child support

Parents will no longer have to pay child maintenance when they share the care of their children equally, once changes to the UK child support system come into force.

The Government's response to consultation on draft child support regulations was published this week.

In the announcement, Maria Miller MP stated "A widely resented Child Support Agency rule is to be scrapped. This rule required some parents to pay maintenance even though they share the care of their children on a 50-50 basis. In future no maintenance will need to be paid where care is shared exactly equally."

The changes confirmed in the Response also include:

Removing students from the nil rate;

A caseworker, in the absence of an agreement by the parents or acceptable evidence of a pattern of shared care, can assume a level of one night’s shared care on the part of the non-resident parent where the fact that there will be shared care is not in doubt but parents cannot agree on the actual amount;

The rates for relevant other children will be reduced to 11% for one child, 14% for 2 children and 16% for t3 or more children;

The flat rate when a non-resident parent receives a specified benefit or has weekly income of under £100 will be set at £10 when the new scheme is open to all new applicants

The Government intends to increase the default maintenance rates (when there is insufficient information about a non-resident parent’s circumstances to make a full calculation) to £39 for one child, £51 for two children and £64 for three or more children.