Guidance

Child maintenance: how a child’s living arrangements can affect payments: factsheet

This factsheet explains how child maintenance payments are affected when a child stays overnight with the parent who pays child maintenance.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 1 October 2013
• Last updated: 27 October 2023
  Show all updates

  1. 27 October 2023

     Published updated version of the factsheet 'How your child’s living arrangements affect child maintenance'.

  2. 1 October 2013

     First published.

This publication was withdrawn on 7 August 2026

This guidance has been replaced by Telling the Child Maintenance Service about living arrangements - GOV.UK.

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Documents

How your child’s living arrangements affect child maintenance

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78153-744-2, CMSB041GB

PDF, 663 KB, 3 pages

How your child’s living arrangements affect child maintenance

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78153-744-2, CMSB041GB

HTML

Details

In child maintenance cases, a child can spend time with both their parents. We call it ‘shared care’ when the child stays overnight with the parent who pays child maintenance. This factsheet explains how shared care can affect child maintenance payments if it happens for an average of 1 night a week or more.

Find out more about child maintenance.