Maintenance & Children
The arrangement has to work in practice, not just on paper.
Maintenance and contact arrangements are the parts of family law people live with every week for years. When they work, nobody thinks about them. When they stop working — the payments stop, the handovers become impossible, circumstances change — they need fixing properly rather than argued about at the gate.
Handled by Mandy Jay · 34 years in practice
The situation
What brings people in
- Maintenance has stopped, or has never started, and nothing you have tried has changed that.
- The amount was set years ago and no longer resembles what a child actually costs.
- You are being kept from your children, or the arrangement is being applied only when it suits.
- You are paying and cannot afford it, and you do not know whether that can be revisited.
What the law says
What the law actually says
- Both parents have a duty to maintain their children according to their respective means. It is not a duty that attaches only to the parent the children do not live with.
- Maintenance is dealt with in the Maintenance Court, which is designed to be accessible without an attorney — though having one generally makes the process shorter and the outcome better prepared.
- A maintenance order can be varied when circumstances genuinely change, in either direction. Failing to pay is a criminal offence, and enforcement mechanisms exist.
- Contact and care are governed by the best interests of the child. Maintenance and contact are legally separate — withholding one because of the other is not permitted, however understandable it feels.
How we handle it
- 01
Work out what is actually owed
Income on both sides, the real cost of the children, and what any existing order says. Most disputes here start from two different sets of assumptions.
- 02
Try to agree first
An agreed variation or parenting plan is faster, cheaper and far less damaging to a relationship that has to continue for years.
- 03
Court where necessary
Application to the Maintenance Court for an order or a variation, or to the High Court where care and contact are genuinely in dispute.
- 04
Enforce it
Where an order exists and is ignored, there are real mechanisms — attachment of emolument, attachment of debt, and criminal prosecution.
What it costs
Maintenance work is usually the most affordable family matter we handle, because the Maintenance Court is built to be accessible. We will tell you honestly when you do not need us for a step, and we would rather do the parts where representation actually changes the outcome.
What moves the number
- Whether the other parent engages or has to be compelled
- Whether this is a new order, a variation, or enforcement of an existing one
- Whether care and contact are disputed alongside the money
- Whether income has to be investigated rather than simply disclosed
How long it takes
An uncontested variation can move quickly. A contested maintenance enquiry, or a genuine dispute about care and contact, takes months — and where a child’s circumstances are urgent, there are interim routes that do not wait for the final answer.
Common questions
Maintenance & Children
The other parent is not paying. What can actually be done?
Where an order exists, maintenance can be attached from a salary or from money owed to that person, and non-payment is a criminal offence. The mechanisms exist and they work — the usual problem is that people do not know to ask for them.
Can maintenance be reduced if I genuinely cannot afford it?
Yes. A variation works in both directions where circumstances have genuinely changed. What does not work is simply stopping — that creates arrears and exposes you to enforcement while the underlying problem stays unsolved.
Can I stop paying if I am not allowed to see my children?
No, and doing so will make your position worse. Maintenance and contact are legally separate issues. Both are enforceable, and both should be dealt with — but not by using one against the other.
We were never married. Does that change anything?
Not as far as the children are concerned. The duty of support and the framework for parental responsibilities and rights do not depend on the parents having been married.