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Moving off benefits
If you are a parent with care receiving child maintenance and you are coming off benefits then you should contact us as soon as possible. Once you are off benefits you will be able to keep all the maintenance that your child's non-resident parent is paying rather than just part of it and so your payments may increase.
If you are a non-resident parent who is coming off benefits, or if you are a parent with care who has found out that your child's non-resident parent is coming off benefits, you should also contact us. The amount you pay or get might change.
You can use our calculator to work out how much your maintenance might be.
Moving off benefits on the old scheme
What is the child maintenance bonus and when is it paid?
If we worked out the amount of child maintenance to be paid using the rules of the old scheme, introduced before 3 March 2003 and if the parent with care or their partner returns to work and stops claiming benefit, they may be entitled to receive a child maintenance bonus. This is a tax-free lump sum of up to £1000, based on the amount of child maintenance that has been paid for the parent with care's child or children.
The child maintenance bonus is paid by Jobcentre Plus. To claim it, the parent with care or their partner should fill in the form CMB1.
You can find out more information about the Child Maintenance Bonus and how it is worked out. The child maintenance bonus must be claimed within 28 days of returning to work and you will need to stop claiming Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance.
Please note the Child Maintenance Bonus scheme is coming to an end. Parents with care must satisfy the qualifying criteria and have stopped claiming benefit by 26 November to be entitled to any bonus that may have built up. They then have a further four weeks to claim the bonus.
You can find out more information on how child maintenance is changing here.
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