Chapter 3 of 6 · Money and the home · Maintenance and pensions
Maintenance and pensions: what happens to the money?
Rules verified2026-10-07Child maintenance has a State calculator since 2026; spousal maintenance has no formula at all; pensions need a court order and sometimes an actuary. This page walks you through the first and screens the third.
Part 1 · Child maintenance
The State calculator, and what to do with its answer
Since January 2026 the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has run an online child maintenance calculator. This site does not copy it: the official tool is free, and its figure is the one both parents and the court will recognise as the starting point.
- Gather four things: both parents' gross annual income; overnights or daytime hours with each parent; children's ages; other dependent children.
- Run the calculator on the official site. It takes a few minutes and keeps nothing.
- Read the figure as a starting point. In the Department's own words: “The estimate provided by the child maintenance calculator is not legally binding or enforceable, nor will it change an existing court order. It is a guide only.”
- Use it in the conversation: in mediation (the Family Mediation Service is free), in a separation agreement, or as the figure you ask the court to order. A court order is what makes maintenance enforceable.
Spousal maintenance has no calculator and no formula. Irish law weighs the twelve factors in section 20 of the 1996 Act case by case. Any site that gives you a spousal maintenance number is inventing one. See maintenance for a spouse.
Part 2 · Pensions
Is a pension adjustment order likely, and is a valuation worth it?
Add each pension either of you holds. The screener says whether an order is likely to be in question and whether paying an actuary is worth it. It never computes a split: the court decides proper provision.
The pension screener says whether an order is likely to be in question and whether a valuation is worth it. It never computes a split: an Irish court decides proper provision case by case under section 20 of the 1996 Act.