Child maintenance facts and figures
Statistics about separated families and the child maintenance system.
These statistics look at financial and non-financial support between separated parents to help support their children.
There is no requirement for separated families to have a child maintenance arrangement and not all families want an arrangement. If they do want an arrangement, separated families have a number of choices.
Separated parents can arrange child maintenance themselves, if they agree to do so. This is called a ‘family-based arrangement’ and is a private way to sort out child maintenance. It can consist of payments or other support, such as sharing care or paying some costs. Parents may arrange everything themselves and no-one else has to be involved.
For parents who need some assistance, the Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance (GHACM) service is a free service that provides impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements. GHACM was introduced in November 2021 and replaced Child Maintenance Options (Options).
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS), which replaced the Child Support Agency (CSA), is for when parents can’t agree to a family-based arrangement. Parents wishing to use the CMS must first speak to GHACM.
Child Maintenance Service statistics
The CMS provides statutory support to parents in setting up and maintaining child maintenance arrangements. This publication gives details of statutory child maintenance arrangements and the performance of the service.
As of December 2023, 960,000 children were covered by CMS arrangements.
Separated families statistics
This publication gives details of statistics on separated families and their child maintenance arrangements.
Child Maintenance Options statistics
The final release of the Options statistics was published in March 2019. The Options service helped separated parents to set up a family-based arrangement or directed them to the CMS. This publication gives the number of people phoning the Options service and statistics regarding the arrangements made by separated parents after their calls.
Options was replaced by GHACM in November 2021.
Child Support Agency statistics
The final release of the CSA quarterly summary statistics (with data to June 2021) was published in October 2021.
The CMS replaced the CSA and all CSA cases with an ongoing liability were closed by December 2018. A small number of CSA cases, which had historical debt built up under the CSA schemes, remained and were moved onto the CMS IT systems.
A reduced set of CSA Arrears statistics has been developed and is published alongside the CMS quarterly statistics:
- Table 1 (Paying Parents with CSA arrears)
The table contains information on the number of Paying Parents with CSA arrears including arrangements which transferred from CSA as arrears only.
The final release of the case closure statistics was published in March 2019.
Last updated 26 March 2024 + show all updates
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to December 2023.
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Added a link to the latest release of Separated families statistics: April 2014 to March 2023.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to September 2023.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to June 2023.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to March 2023.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to December 2022.
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Added a link to the latest release of Separated families statistics: April 2014 to March 2022 (experimental).
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, this has data to September 2022.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, data to June 2022.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, data to March 2022.
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Added a link to the latest release of: Separated families statistics: April 2014 to March 2021 (experimental).
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Added a link to the latest release of: 'Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to December 2021'
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to September 2021.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics, with data to June 2021 (experimental).
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to June 2021.
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Added a link to the latest release of the Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics, with data to March 2021.
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Added a link to the latest release of the Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics, data to March 2021.
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Added a link to the latest release of the Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics, data to December 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to December 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly statistics, data to September 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to September 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly statistics, data to June 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to June 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly statistics, data to March 2020.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to March 2020.
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Added links to the latest releases of statistics - Child maintenance arrangements made after speaking to CM Options, May to July 2019, and Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics: December 2019.
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Added link to latest version of Separated families population statistics: April 2014 to March 2018.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly statistics, data to September 2019.
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Added 'Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2019 (experimental)'.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Support Agency quarterly statistics, data to June 2019.
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Added a link to the latest release of Child Maintenance Service statistics, with data to June 2019.
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Added links to the latest releases of child maintenance statistics, these are: 'Child maintenance arrangements made after speaking to CM Options, March to April 2019', 'Child Maintenance Service: August 2013 to March 2019', and 'Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics to March 2019'.
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First published.