The Child Support Agency (CSA) Explained: What Replaced It and How Child Maintenance Works Now

The Child Support Agency

If you have been told to “go through the Child Support Agency“, the advice is out of date. The CSA closed years ago, and the service that took its place works differently, charges differently, and calculates payments in a way many parents find surprising. That matters, because the figure you end up with can be several hundred pounds a year away from what you expected.

This guide explains what the CSA was, what replaced it, how child maintenance is worked out now, and what happens to old CSA arrears. It also covers the option most parents overlook, which is agreeing a figure between yourselves and writing it down. If you are also sorting out where the children live and when they see each parent, our guide to arrangements for the children covers that side of things.

Why Was the Child Support Agency Set Up, and What Went Wrong?

The Child Support Agency launched on 5 April 1993, created by the Child Support Act 1991. Before then, child maintenance was largely a court matter, decided case by case. The idea behind the CSA was to replace that with a single formula applied consistently across the country, run by one agency inside the Department for Work and Pensions.

In practice, it struggled from the start. Three problems came up again and again:

• Complexity: the original 1993 formula took dozens of pieces of information to work out a single assessment, which made it slow and error prone.
• Two schemes running at once: a simpler 2003 scheme was introduced, but the 1993 cases stayed on the old system, so the agency ran two sets of rules on two sets of computers.
• Arrears: billions of pounds of unpaid maintenance built up, much of which was eventually written off as uncollectable.

Reform came in stages. The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission took over the CSA’s functions in 2008, and in 2012 the statutory scheme was rebuilt again as the Child Maintenance Service.

Is the CSA Still Going in 2026?

No. Is the CSA still going is one of the most common questions parents ask us, and the answer is a clear no. From 25 November 2013, every new child maintenance application went to the CMS. The CSA then ran a phased closure programme from 2014, and the government confirms that all CSA cases with ongoing liabilities were closed between 2014 and 2018. The CSA’s own computer systems were shut down in March 2020.

So if a friend, a relative or an old forum post mentions CSA payments, treat it as shorthand. The name has stuck in everyday speech the way people still say they are “taxing the car”. What they are describing is almost always a CMS arrangement.

What Replaced the Child Support Agency?

The Child Maintenance Service replaced the Child Support Agency in 2012. It sits within the Department for Work and Pensions and handles statutory child maintenance across England, Wales and Scotland, with an equivalent service in Northern Ireland.

The CMS offers two ways of paying, though this is due to change:

• Direct Pay: the CMS works out the amount, then the parents move the money between themselves. There are no collection fees.
• Collect and Pay: the CMS takes the money from the paying parent and passes it on. The paying parent pays 20% on top of the assessment and the receiving parent gets 4% less than the assessed figure.

Opening a case is free. The £20 application fee that used to be charged was removed on 26 February 2024, so there is no longer any fee to apply, whatever your circumstances.

How Does the CMS Differ From the Old CSA?

The CSA vs CMS comparison comes up constantly, usually because a parent is trying to work out whether an old assessment still stands. Here is the short version.

	Child Support Agency	Child Maintenance Service
Ran from	1993 to 2012, cases closed by 2018	2012 to present
Income used	Net income, self declared, often out of date	Gross income, taken from HMRC records
Reviews	Changes reported ad hoc	Automatic annual review on the case anniversary
Fees	No application fee	No application fee since February 2024, plus collection fees on Collect and Pay
Emphasis	State assessment for most separated families	Parents encouraged to agree privately first

The switch from net to gross income is the change that catches people out. A CSA assessment and a CMS assessment on the same salary will not produce the same number, so an old figure is not a reliable guide to a new one.

How Is Child Maintenance Calculated Now?

If you are wondering how is child maintenance calculated, the CMS follows six steps. It starts with the paying parent’s gross annual income from HMRC, converts it to a weekly figure, then applies one of five rates.

• Nil rate: no maintenance is payable, for example where the paying parent is a student, a prisoner, or aged 16 or 17.
• Flat rate: a fixed £7 a week, whatever the number of children, usually where gross weekly income is between £7 and £100 or certain benefits are in payment.
• Reduced rate: applies between £100.01 and £199.99 a week, made up of the £7 flat rate plus a percentage of the income above £100.
• Basic rate: applies from £200 to £800 a week, at 12% for one child, 16% for two, and 19% for three or more.
• Basic plus rate: income between £800.01 and £3,000 a week is charged at a lower percentage on the slice above £800.

Two adjustments then reduce the figure. Other children living in the paying parent’s household cut the income taken into account by 11% for one child, 14% for two and 16% for three or more. Shared care cuts the maintenance itself, on a sliding scale that starts at 52 overnight stays a year and reaches a half reduction at 175 nights or more.

The formula stops at £3,000 gross a week. Above that, the receiving parent can apply to court for a top-up order. You can check your own position with the official GOV.UK guidance on how the calculation works, which is current as of July 2026.

The percentages above are only the starting point. The full formula, with the 2026 rates, the shared care bands and worked examples, is set out in our guide to how child maintenance is calculated.

Payments do not run indefinitely either. They stop when your child turns 16 and leaves education, or at 20 at the latest, and our guide to when you stop paying child maintenance covers the exact dates and the step most paying parents miss.

Can You Still Chase Old Child Support Agency Arrears?

Historic CSA payments that were never made are a sore subject for many parents, and the honest answer is that most of that debt is gone. When the CSA closed its cases, parents owed arrears were asked whether they wanted the debt pursued. Where the sums were small, very old, or realistically uncollectable, large amounts were written off, and the CSA’s systems were finally closed in March 2020.

If you believe you are still owed CSA arrears, contact the Child Maintenance Service directly and ask for the case history. Do not assume a new CMS application will recover the old debt, because a new application only creates a liability from the date it is made. That is a distinction worth understanding before you spend months chasing it.

Do You Have to Use the CMS at All?

No, and this is the part most parents do not realise. The statutory service is there for families who cannot agree. If you can agree, you have three broad options:

• A family based arrangement: you agree the amount and the dates between yourselves. No fees, no forms, and you can include extras such as school trips, uniform or a share of childcare.
• A CMS calculation with Direct Pay: useful if you want an official figure but would rather move the money yourselves.
• A court order by consent: in limited situations, such as school fees, a disabled child, or a top-up above the £3,000 income cap.

A family based arrangement is not directly enforceable, which puts some parents off. In practice it works well where both of you want it to, and either parent can still apply to the CMS later if it stops working. Writing it down carefully makes a real difference, and a parenting plan is a good place to record it alongside the day to day arrangements.

Will the Child Maintenance Service Change Again?

Yes, and the change is significant. In June 2025 the government confirmed it will abolish Direct Pay and move to a single service. Cases with a strong payment record will be supported into family based arrangements, and everything else will go onto Collect and Pay. Fees are set to fall to 2% for most users, with the 20% charge kept for paying parents who do not comply. The House of Commons Library reports that implementation is planned for 2027 to 2028.

The plan is not without critics. In October 2025 the House of Lords Public Services Committee published its report on reforming the Child Maintenance Service, saying it was not convinced the removal of Direct Pay would improve compliance. For now, nothing has changed for parents with a live case, but it is a reason not to build long term plans around Direct Pay staying as it is.

How Can Mediation Help You Agree Child Maintenance?

The CMS formula answers one question: what does the statutory scheme say this parent owes. It cannot tell you who pays for the school trip, what happens when one of you changes jobs, or how to handle a child with additional needs. Those questions are exactly what family mediation is built for.

In practice, a mediator will help you both put your finances on the table, run the CMS figure as a starting point, then talk through what your child actually costs. Many couples land somewhere different from the calculator, and both feel better about it because they built it. The process starts with a MIAM, an individual meeting where a mediator explains the options and checks that mediation is suitable for you.

If child arrangements are part of the discussion, you may also qualify for the government’s family mediation voucher scheme, a one-off contribution of up to £500 per family towards the cost of mediation. It is not means tested, and the Family Mediation Council confirms it remains available, subject to availability, as of July 2026. It does not cover the MIAM itself, and a finance only case does not qualify.

Frequently Asked Questions