How much is an acceptable amount?

A question about : How much is an acceptable amount?

I have a newborn baby and I am currently sorting out child support payments with my ex partner (babies father) he plans to see the child twice a week but in my home (as he lives 2 hours away) until the baby is a bit older when he will then take him home.

He is 23, graduated 2 years ago and is self-employed so his salary varies but usually it is no lower than 1300 and no higher than about 2600 per month. He does not have any other children.

We are trying to be civil and doing this outside of court and he has asked me to come back to him with what I think is a suitable amount of money for him to give me for the child, but I have no idea. I have no experience of child support so I don't want to ask for an amount that is unreasonable nor to little.

Best answers:

• Well Ј1300+Ј2600=Ј3900 /2 =Ј1950 as an average, 9% of that is Ј175per month. A lot for some, too little for others.
• DUTR has worked it out on NET pay where as 9% should be on gross pay, if you want to work it out on net then you should use 15% of net figure which is Ј292.50 (on average of Ј1950)
• I have assumed the OP has supplied net figures not gross.
  OP, can you confirm if they are NET or GROSS?
• It depends what you mean by self employed. If he has his own ltd company it's likely that as an employee of the company he draws a small salary and takes the rest as a director dividend. If so the question about net/gross is a bit different.
  Why not take the average figure that DUTR provided and put it through the Child Maintenance Options calculator to give you an idea of a fair figure.