Family-based arrangements – 52,000 children covered since March 2015

Recent statistics from The Department for Work & Pensions reveal that since the creation of Child Maintenance Options in March 2015, 52,000 children have benefited from Family-Based Arrangements. Child Maintenance Options is a free service that provides impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements, and has resulted in parents who contacted the service setting up their own effective Family-Based Arrangements (or FBAs).

An FBA is something which can be agreed between parents which confirms the level of child maintenance, who is paying and who is receiving, and how many nights a child is staying with each parent. The statistics also show that since the creation of the Child Maintenance Service in 2008, 199,000 children have benefited from an effective FBA after contact with Child Maintenance Options.

The Child Maintenance Service replaced the old Child Support Agency and parents who are unable to agree a FBA can contact the Child Maintenance Service for a formal assessment and can also use the service in the collection of funds from one parent to another.

Amanda Erskine is a solicitor in the Family department at Barker Gotelee, Solicitors in Suffolk

Family Solicitors – for more information on our range of legal services, please call the team on 01473 611211 or email [email protected]