The UK's Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act will radically change the existing child support system by replacing the Child Support Agency with a new body - the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. This book is a detailed account of this new UK legislation. As an invaluable and authoritative guide, the book offers practitioners advice on the law, practice, and procedure under the new regime which includes simplifying how child maintenance is calculated, encouraging parents to make their own child maintenance arrangements and introducing tougher enforcement powers to collect arrears of child maintenance from parents who fail to pay. The book also contains the full text of the Act. Contents include: the background to and general principles of the Act * how child maintenance is calculated * special cases: revisions, variations, and exceptions * procedure * voluntary agreements and the role of the courts * disputes as to parentage * appeals and judicial review * collection and enforcement * transitional provisions and miscellaneous matters.