Sorting out child maintenance in Scotland

If you're looking into child maintenance in Scotland, the Child Maintenance Service can help you set up, calculate or enforce payments, they're a government service that handles the practical side of things. You might also find it helpful to chat with One Parent Families Scotland, who offer support and advice specifically for single parents, or Shared Parenting Scotland, a charity that supports separated parents and can guide you through the process. If you need proper legal advice about how child maintenance works under Scots law, the Scottish Child Law Centre offers free legal guidance for families. It's worth reaching out to whichever feels right for your situation, they're there to help.

Scotland uses the same Child Maintenance Service as the rest of Great Britain, so the calculation works the same way, but Scots law gives you two extras worth knowing about. You can make a private agreement genuinely enforceable through a Minute of Agreement, and, uniquely in Scotland, older children can apply to the CMS in their own right. Both can change how you approach the conversation.

• You can arrange maintenance privately between yourselves, or through the Child Maintenance Service; the same CMS calculation applies in Scotland, based on the paying parent's gross income from HMRC records (mygov.scot; gov.uk).
• Only in Scotland: a child aged 12 or older can apply to the Child Maintenance Service themselves (mygov.scot).
• A solicitor can put your agreement into a Minute of Agreement and register it in the Books of Council and Session, making it legally binding and enforceable in the same way as a court order (mygov.scot).
• Grandparents or guardians with day-to-day care of the child can apply to the CMS, but step-parents cannot use the service (mygov.scot).
• Once a CMS arrangement is in place, you must report any change in circumstances to the Child Maintenance Service (mygov.scot).

Checked August 2026 against mygov.scot and gov.uk.

Child maintenance is money towards a child's everyday living costs, usually paid by the parent the child lives with less of the time.

• You can agree an amount privately, use an online calculator as a guide, or apply to the statutory service if you cannot agree.
• Amounts are based on income, the number of children, and how many nights they stay over.
• Keep a clear record of what is agreed and paid.
• ParenThing can log payments so both of you have the same record.