50/50 Shared Care but Still Paying Maintenance? Here Is Why

The short answer

You are still paying with 50/50 care because the law needs one paying parent and one receiving parent in every CMS case, and when care is equal it picks between you using a presumption: whoever receives Child Benefit is treated as the main carer. The other parent, which is you, is treated as the paying parent. Equal nights reduce the amount substantially, but they do not switch it off.

That is the whole mechanism. The rest of this article is what it means in numbers, why the rule exists, and the realistic routes to changing your position.

Equal care does not mean no maintenance

People assume that if the children split their time equally, the money should net off to nothing. The regulations do not work that way. The CMS must first decide who the paying parent is, and only then apply the shared care reduction to that parent's calculation. Deciding who pays comes down to who provides the greater share of day-to-day care, and where that is genuinely equal, Regulation 50 breaks the tie with Child Benefit.

Two consequences catch parents out:

Opting out of Child Benefit because of the high income charge changes nothing. The CMS treats the opted-out parent as if they still receive it.
The presumption can be rebutted, but the burden of proof is on the parent challenging it. In a genuine 50/50 case with no strong evidence either way, the Child Benefit holder wins.

What 50/50 does to the amount

Equal care usually means your children stay with you 175 nights a year or more, which is the top shared care band. In that band the calculation is cut in half, and then reduced by a further £7 a week for each child in the band.

A worked example: gross income of £500 a week with one child gives a basic rate calculation of £60 a week. At 175 or more nights, that halves to £30, minus a further £7, leaving £23 a week. Real money, but a long way from the full amount, and if your reduction does not reflect your actual nights, that alone is worth challenging. Run your own figures through the calculator and see the shared care guide for the full bands.

Why the rule works this way

The CMS needs a bright-line rule because without one, both parents in an equal-care arrangement could apply against each other simultaneously and the service would have no way to choose. Child Benefit records give it an administrative answer that already exists for every child. It is a tiebreaker built for the convenience of the system, not a judgment that you do less parenting, and it can feel arbitrary precisely because in a genuine 50/50 arrangement it is.

Your realistic options, in order of impact

1. Check the nights are counted correctly

Before challenging who pays, make sure the reduction you get reflects reality. If the CMS has you at 104 to 155 nights when you actually have 175 plus, you are overpaying inside a calculation that is otherwise correct. Report it and ask for the shared care determination to be looked at again.

2. Challenge who the paying parent is

If you provide the greater share of day-to-day care, not just equal nights, you should not be the paying parent at all. This is an evidence exercise, and the evidence has to beat the Child Benefit presumption: a care diary kept over time, school and GP records naming you and your address, spending records, messages confirming the real pattern. We have put the whole process in order in our main carer evidence checklist. Treat it as your gathering list for a tribunal, because that is where a disputed case ends up.

3. Look at the Child Benefit position itself

Only one person can claim Child Benefit for a child, and HMRC decides between competing claims on where the child lives. If your children genuinely live with you as much or more, and all the official records say otherwise, correcting the Child Benefit position is both worth doing in its own right and changes the CMS presumption for the future.

4. Go through the formal challenge route

Report the change of circumstances, and if the decision goes against you, request a mandatory reconsideration within one month, then appeal to the First-tier Tribunal if needed. The tribunal is free and independent, and it decides on the evidence in front of it, which is why the checklist matters more than anything you say on the phone. Our MR letter generator drafts the reconsideration request.

Keep paying while you challenge. The current calculation stays in force until the CMS or a tribunal changes it, and unpaid amounts become enforceable arrears even if you eventually win. Stopping payments turns a strong evidence case into an arrears case.

If nothing changes

If the Child Benefit presumption stands and your care is genuinely equal, the honest position is that you will remain the paying parent at the reduced amount. At that point the productive fight is about accuracy rather than principle: the right income figure, the right number of children, the right nights band. Those are all checkable, and all challengeable when wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pay child maintenance with 50/50 custody?

Usually yes, one parent still pays. When care is equal, the CMS treats the parent receiving Child Benefit as the main carer, and the other parent pays at a reduced rate. Equal care reduces the amount substantially but does not remove the liability.

How much is child maintenance with 50/50 care?

At 175 nights or more a year, the calculation is halved and then reduced by a further £7 a week per child. On a £60 a week calculation for one child, that leaves £23 a week.

How do I stop paying child maintenance with 50/50 custody?

You need to show you provide the greater share of day-to-day care, not just equal nights, with evidence strong enough to beat the Child Benefit presumption: a contemporaneous care diary, school and GP records, spending evidence and messages. Our main carer checklist sets out the steps in order, ending at the First-tier Tribunal if the CMS refuses.

Does Child Benefit really decide who pays?

In genuinely equal care cases, yes. Regulation 50 presumes the Child Benefit recipient provides the greater share of care unless there is evidence to the contrary, and opting out of payments because of the high income charge does not remove the presumption.

Can both parents claim child maintenance from each other?

No. A CMS case has one paying parent and one receiving parent. The rules exist precisely to prevent both parents in a shared care arrangement applying against each other, which is why a tiebreaker like the Child Benefit presumption is needed.