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Divorce Finance Specialists

4 articles

Maintenance and Support

Practical guides on maintenance and support for people divorcing or separating in the UK.

  • Maintenance and Support

    Money after divorce: budgeting, income impact and rebuilding (2026)

    A single adult living alone gets 25% off their council tax bill, which is one of the few automatic gains in a budget that has just lost a second income. Both households usually end up worse off after a separation, because fixed costs such as council tax, energy standing charges, broadband and insurance do not halve when a couple splits. This guide covers the income cliff on both sides, how to rebuild a single-household budget from bank statements rather than memory, the benefits and Universal Credit re-check a separation triggers, the capital rules that catch settlement lump sums, rebuilding credit and savings, borrowing as a single applicant, and the two pieces of paperwork most people forget: the will and the pension death benefit nomination.

    7 min read

  • Maintenance and Support

    School fees and Schedule 1 claims: who pays after divorce or separation

    The family court in England and Wales can order a parent to pay a child's private school fees, whether the parents were married or not. Within a divorce, a school fees order is made as part of the financial settlement and is a form of child maintenance, so it can be varied if circumstances change. Parents who never married use Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989, which can also provide housing for the child, lump sums and an allowance for the caring parent, though nothing for the parent in their own right. The Child Maintenance Service formula stops at £3,000 of gross weekly income, so above roughly £156,000 a year only a court can order top-up maintenance, and school fees orders are a specific statutory carve-out the court can make even where the CMS has jurisdiction. Since 1 January 2025 fees have carried VAT at 20 per cent, which has made affordability the central battleground in almost every school fees dispute.

    6 min read

  • Maintenance and Support

    How the Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance

    The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) works out payments from the paying parent's gross weekly income using five rates. On the basic rate, the paying parent pays 12% of gross weekly income for one child, 16% for two, and 19% for three or more, on income up to £800 a week, with lower percentages added on income between £800 and £3,000. That figure is then reduced for shared care and for other children living in the paying parent's household. This guide explains each step, with worked examples, and links to the official gov.uk calculator so you can run your own figures.

    8 min read

  • Maintenance and Support

    Spousal maintenance: how it works, how much, and the tax

    Spousal maintenance is a regular income payment from one ex-spouse to the other after divorce, separate from child maintenance and from any capital settlement. There is no fixed formula: courts decide it case by case under section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, weighing needs against earning capacity, and modern practice steers strongly toward a fixed term that lets the receiving spouse transition to independence rather than an indefinite joint-lives order. It is paid out of the payer's taxed income and is not taxable income for the person who receives it. This guide explains how awards are decided, how long they last, how they end, and how they can be capitalised into a lump sum.

    9 min read
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