PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(28 August 2026)

The Department has completed a review of the child maintenance calculation. This focused on ensuring the calculation strikes the right balance between both parents, encourages compliance, and secures more money for children.

Following the review, we plan to reduce the income tolerance used for reassessments from 25 per cent to 15 per cent and include unearned income within the standard calculation.

These changes will ensure that maintenance liabilities more accurately reflect parents' full financial circumstances and that, where parents receive income from sources other than PAYE earnings, such as rental income, investments, dividends or other unearned income, their children routinely benefit from it through child maintenance calculations.

Our priority is now to take forward these targeted changes, as part of our broader programme of reforms, at the earliest appropriate opportunity to deliver meaningful improvements for the families who rely on the child maintenance system.