Child Maintenance: Reform, a Key Appeal, and the Elusive Christmas Order

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is firmly in the spotlight.  In October 2025, the House of Lords Public Services Committee published its report, Reforming the Child Maintenance Service, concluding that the current calculation formula — now over two decades old — is neither fair nor transparent.

One of the central concerns is the way in which the paying parent's income is assessed.  At present, the CMS draws on HMRC data which can be significantly out of date, particularly for self-employed individuals.  In the first instance, the calculation also does not take into account certain financial resources, such as profit retained in a company or capital assets that are being used to meet living costs.  The Committee recommended that any reformed approach should be designed to share fairly the cost of a child between parents and reflect modern family arrangements, drawing on the needs-based model used by the Family Court.  The Government has since published its consultation response, confirming the removal of Direct Pay and committing to a fundamental review of the calculation itself, with legislative changes anticipated in 2027-28.

Importantly, in the House of Lords debate on 8 June 2026, the Government confirmed two significant changes to the calculation. As Baroness Sherlock stated:

"Following the review, I am pleased to advise the Committee that we plan to reduce the income tolerance from 25% to 15% so that changes to income are captured more quickly and assessments remain fair to both parents…we will include unearned income within the standard calculation, which will ensure that liabilities more accurately reflect parents' full financial circumstances. Those reforms will help ensure that the system better reflects how families earn and receive income today, helping deliver more consistent support for children."

Against this backdrop, an important case is making its way to the Court of Appeal. Charles Russell Speechlys LLP represent a mother challenging the interplay between CMS annual reviews and child maintenance orders made by the Family Court. At its heart lies a familiar tension: what happens when the CMS's statutory machinery meets a carefully negotiated court order? Watch this space – the outcome could have significant implications for practitioners and parents alike.  Particularly those who have already endured a court process.

A side note to this dispute is the permissibility of the so-called ‘Christmas Order’: a self-renewing consent order providing for a chain of child maintenance orders, each lasting less than 12 months, designed to prevent either party from seeking a new CMS calculation.  Rarely encountered and long-debated, the Christmas Order occupies an uncertain corner of family law. Could this be the case that brings clarity? Time will tell.