The Reality Of Child Maintenance: Facts, Not Excuses

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There is a growing conversation around child maintenance in the UK,  but too often it is driven by emotion, blame, or misinformation.

This is not about opinion. 

This is about evidence, law, and the real-life impact on children.

The System Isn’t Working The Way That It Was Intended

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was designed with a clear purpose:

To ensure children are financially supported after parents separate.

Simple in theory. Fair in principle. But in reality, the system is failing too many families.

Parents who are doing the right thing feel punished.

Parents trying to receive fair support feel unheard.

And children,  the very reason the system exists are caught in the middle.

The Facts We Cannot Ignore

Raising a child in the UK costs thousands of pounds every year. Housing, food, clothing, education, and basic wellbeing all come at a significant cost.

And yet, under the current system, some parents are able to declare income at or around the £12,570 personal allowance.

This can result in child maintenance payments of as little as £83 per month.

No child can be properly supported on that.

At the same time, the parent with care is left covering the majority of daily costs,  often alone.

The Loophole Problem

The issue is not just low payments. It is how those low payments are achieved.

The system relies heavily on declared income reported to HMRC.

But for self-employed individuals, company directors, and sole shareholders, income is not always straightforward. Money can be structured through:-

• Dividends

• Retained profits

• Business expenses

• Asset holdings

These are legitimate tools for taxation.

But when used to artificially reduce child maintenance, they create a serious imbalance.

Two parents with similar financial capacity can contribute vastly different amounts.

That is not fairness.

That is a systemic failure.

This Is Not Just Financial — It’s Legal

Under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, economic abuse is recognised as a form of domestic abuse. This includes:-

• Controlling access to money

• Withholding financial support

• Creating financial dependence

• Using resources to exert control

When a parent deliberately avoids fair child maintenance, especially when they have the means to pay, this can fall into patterns of economic and coercive abuse.

This is not simply a disagreement about money.

It is about power, control, and impact.

The Real Impact: Children

This is where the conversation must return,  always to the children.

Low or inconsistent financial support is linked to:-

• Increased risk of child poverty

• Poor nutrition and health outcomes

• Higher rates of dental problems

• Mental health challenges, including anxiety and low self-worth

• Social exclusion and bullying due to lack of basic resources

Children don’t just “miss out.”

They fall behind,  emotionally, socially, and developmentally.

And those effects can last a lifetime.

The Hidden Reality of Financial Abuse

For many survivors of domestic abuse, separation does not end the control.

It simply changes form.

Financial manipulation continues through:-

• Withholding child maintenance

• Deliberate underpayment

• Prolonged disputes

• Exploiting legal and administrative systems

One parent may be struggling to pay rent or keep the lights on.

The other may have the resources to fund legal battles and delay outcomes.

This is not equality.

This is imbalance built into the system.

What Needs to Change

Reform is not radical. It is necessary. We need:-

• Accurate reflection of real financial capacity, not just declared income

• Greater transparency where discrepancies exist

• Stronger enforcement against deliberate income suppression

• Faster correction of CMS errors

• Protection for financially vulnerable parents

• Consideration of retained profits and asset wealth

• A minimum child maintenance  £300, level that reflects real living costs

Because right now, the system allows too many gaps 

and that gap is where children fall.

The Hard Truth

If a parent:-

• Hides income

• Manipulates the system

• Pays the bare minimum despite having more

They are not being clever.

They are not “beating the system.”

They are reducing their child’s quality of life.

What Real Responsibility Looks Like

Being a parent is not about what you can legally get away with.

It is about what your child needs to thrive.

Real parents:-

• Step up

• Take responsibility

• Make sacrifices

• Put their children first, consistently. 

Final Thought

Children do not care about tax structures.

They do not care about loopholes.

They care about:-

• Feeling safe

• Feeling equal

• Feeling supported

You can walk away from a relationship.

You cannot walk away from your responsibility to your child.

Abuse is a choice.

Caring is a choice.

Children deserve the latter.

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Deanna Newell Family Law

Advocacy for truth-tellers, survivors, and the children who deserve better