Child maintenance terms and their meaning

For parents involved in arranging child maintenance, below are some of the keywords you'll come across together with their meaning.

Child

For child maintenance purposes, a child is anyone under 16, or someone aged over 16 and under 20 who:

is not married or in a civil partnership
has never been married or in a civil partnership
is in full-time non-advanced education or approved training

If Child Benefit is still being received, someone under 20 can still be regarded as a child for child maintenance purposes even if they aren't in full-time non-advanced education.

Child Benefit

This is a regular payment made to anyone bringing up children. It is paid for each child who is:

under 16
under 19 (under 20 in some cases) and in full-time education doing a course that is not higher than A-level or the same standard or on a Government-funded training programme
16 or 17 and has recently left school and registered with the Department for the Economy or Education Authority for work, education or training

Child maintenance

Money paid by the paying parent to the receiving parent towards their child’s everyday living costs.

Income-related benefits

Income-related benefits are Income Support, Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

National Insurance number

This is a reference number issued by the UK Government. Everyone has a unique number and this number allows them to work. It’s usually on your payslips.

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If you have a comment or query about benefits, you will need to contact the government department or agency which handles that benefit. Contacts for common benefits are listed below.

Employment and Support Allowance

Call 0800 587 1377

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Contact your local Jobs & Benefits office

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