What this tool does

This calculator shows you how the number of nights your children spend with you each year changes what you pay through the Child Maintenance Service. Put in your current payment and your overnight stays, and it will work out the figure for different contact patterns so you can compare them side by side.

It uses the CMS bands for shared care, so the result reflects how the service actually treats overnight stays when they do the sums.

Who it is for

It is aimed at separated dads who already pay child maintenance through the CMS and want a clearer picture of how a change in contact would affect the money side of things. That might be because you are asking for more overnights, the mother is proposing fewer, or you are trying to agree a new routine after a house move, a new job or the children getting older.

It is also useful if you are about to go into mediation or a solicitor's meeting and want to understand the numbers before you sit down. If you do not pay through the CMS and have a private family based arrangement, the figures will not apply in the same way, though the shared care thresholds can still be a helpful reference point.

How it works

You answer two quick questions, your current monthly payment and the number of nights a year the children currently stay with you, then pick the new overnight figure you want to test. The tool gives you a plain English summary of the new payment and the difference from what you pay now. Nothing you enter is saved or shared, the calculation runs in your browser and disappears when you close the page.