Commentary on Sections Part 6: Miscellaneous Section 138: Indicative maintenance calculations
701.To support the making of maintenance arrangements outside the statutory scheme, the Government will provide a service which will give parents an indication of the amount of maintenance which would be payable under the statutory child scheme if an application were to be made. Section 138 therefore inserts new section 9A into the Child Support Act 1991 making provision for such a service. The provision will enable an application for an indicative maintenance calculation to be made to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission by a person with care, non-resident parent or a qualifying child aged 12 or over in Scotland.
702.An indicative calculation will be made on exactly the same basis as a maintenance calculation would be were an application made to the statutory scheme, but will not create any liability to pay maintenance. Where parentage of the child or children is denied, section 9A(6) will prevent the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission from providing an indicative maintenance calculation, unless the person who denies parentage has been shown, through a DNA test, to be the parent of that child or children. Instead the applicant will be advised to make a full application to the statutory scheme.