Child maintenance in blended families: who pays what?

Child maintenance in a blended family is worked out by first establishing what each child needs and then dividing the financial capacity, or draagkracht, of everyone who is legally obliged to contribute. Several people can owe maintenance at the same time: both legal parents of a child, and a stepparent who is married to or a registered partner of the parent the child lives with. Where the available capacity falls short, the Supreme Court holds that the amount available is in principle shared equally between the children from the different relationships, and only a concrete special circumstance justifies a different split.

This article explains how child maintenance works in blended families, who – besides the biological parent – may be legally obliged to contribute, and how the court distributes the available financial capacity when multiple obligors are involved.

Who is legally obliged to maintain a child?

Dutch family law places the primary responsibility for the costs of care and upbringing with the parents. That sounds straightforward, but ‘parent’ has a broader meaning in law than just the biological or legal parent. Under article 1:404 of the Dutch Civil Code, parents must contribute to the cost of care and upbringing of their minor children in proportion to their financial capacity. From the child’s eighteenth birthday the basis changes: article 1:395a obliges parents to cover the cost of living and study of an adult child until that child reaches the age of 21, and no test of need applies in that period.

Stepparents can also become liable, but only on strict conditions. Article 1:395 of the Dutch Civil Code obliges a stepparent to maintain the minor children of a spouse or registered partner who belong to the household, and only for as long as that marriage or registered partnership lasts. Living together is not enough: an unmarried partner who is not a registered partner owes no stepparent maintenance, however closely involved that partner is in raising the child. A separate rule covers a non-parent who exercises parental authority jointly with the parent. Under article 1:253w of the Civil Code that person owes maintenance to the child, and once the joint authority ends the obligation continues for a period equal to the time it lasted, ending at the latest when the child turns 21

In the reality of blended families, this can mean that a child has multiple obligors simultaneously: both legal parents and, where the conditions of article 1:395 are met, a stepparent married to or in a registered partnership with the parent the child lives with. Each of them contributes in proportion to their means, and that gives rise to a calculation problem that regularly generates courtroom disputes.

How is financial capacity distributed?

The proportionality principle

Where one person owes maintenance to children from more than one relationship, the question is how a limited capacity is spread across them. No single statutory provision answers that question. The rule comes from case law and from the Rapport alimentatienormen, the calculation guidelines the family courts apply in practice. The starting point is that all the children have an equal claim. If you have three children, two from a first marriage and one from a current relationship, the capacity available for maintenance is in principle shared between the three of them.

The Supreme Court confirmed that starting point in its ruling of 27 October 2023: where someone owes maintenance to children from different relationships and lacks the capacity to meet all of it, the amount available is in principle divided equally between those children, unless special circumstances justify a different distribution (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1480). What is divided equally is the capacity, not necessarily the resulting monthly amounts, and a party who invokes a special circumstance has to make it concrete.

The proportional division method in practice

There is no single prescribed calculation. In practice the court establishes the need of each child, then the capacity of everyone who owes maintenance for that child, and divides the cost between them in proportion to that capacity. Where a stepparent is liable under article 1:395, that capacity counts as well. How the sums are made is not fixed. In a blended family case decided on 11 December 2025 the Rechtbank Gelderland set out three possible methods side by side and chose the one that produced the highest contribution for the child in those circumstances (ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2025:10842). In a blended family case of 4 November 2025 the Gerechtshof Amsterdam worked with a staged obligation instead, setting different amounts for successive periods as the household circumstances changed (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2025:2989)

If the financial data of one obligor are unavailable – because a former partner refuses to cooperate or fails to disclose information – the court may estimate or apply a standard distribution. The absence of data is not a free pass.

What if your new partner also has children?

Blended families are rarely simple. It is common for both new partners to bring children from previous relationships and to have children together as well. In such situations the financial capacity calculation can grow into a puzzle with many variables. Each child has its own need, each parent their own capacity, and the court must balance all of that.

The court will want the full picture before it calculates: every person who owes maintenance for each child, and the capacity of each of them. The system is built on equal treatment of children from earlier and later relationships. A child should not be worse off because a parent has started a new family, and a child born into the new family does not rank behind the older children either.

When can child maintenance be adjusted?

Child maintenance is not set in stone. The law allows a court-ordered amount to be modified or withdrawn when circumstances change. This may involve a change of income, an altered care arrangement, or the arrival of new children who also make claims on the obligor’s financial capacity.

Under Article 1:401 of the Dutch Civil Code, a court order on child maintenance can be modified if a change of circumstances means it no longer satisfies the legal standards. The threshold is a ‘relevant’ change: not every minor income fluctuation justifies proceedings. The court also has discretion when determining the effective date of any adjustment and will be cautious where the parties have lived under the existing arrangement for a long time.

Indexation is a separate matter from modification. Under article 1:402a of the Civil Code every maintenance amount is adjusted once a year by a percentage set by the Minister of Justice and Security and published in the Staatscourant. That adjustment applies automatically from 1 January and neither party has to ask for it

When does the obligation end?

The obligation ends by operation of law when the child turns 21. Until then no test of need applies between parents and their children: a minor child with income of its own may have a lower calculated need, but the duty itself does not lapse. The same holds for the eighteen to twenty-one bracket, where the young adult, or jongmeerderjarige, may apply to the court in their own name if the parents do not pay voluntarily. From 21 the ordinary rules on maintenance between parents and children apply again, and an adult child then has to show genuine need before a court will order anything.

Arrears are a separate question again. Collection through the Landelijk Bureau Inning Onderhoudsbijdragen, the national maintenance collection agency, may be brought to an end once ten years have passed since the child turned 21 (article 1:408 of the Dutch Civil Code). That rule is about the agency, not about the underlying claim: individual maintenance instalments fall under the five-year limitation period of article 3:308 of the Civil Code, so leaving unpaid maintenance to run is rarely a good idea.

Practical guidance

If you find yourself in a dispute about child maintenance in a blended family, the starting point is to ensure that all relevant financial data are available: your income, that of your former partner, and – where applicable – that of your new partner and any maintenance obligations they carry towards other children. The more transparent the financial picture, the more reliable the calculation.

If you cannot reach an agreement, you can ask the court to set an amount where a parent or stepparent is not meeting the obligation (article 1:406 of the Civil Code), or to modify an existing order under article 1:401. A family lawyer can tell you in advance which of the two routes fits your situation. Consider mediation as well: in blended families, a durable and mutually agreed solution is often worth more than a court order that keeps the parties in opposition.

Maintenance in a blended family turns on who is legally liable and on the figures behind each household, and both are easier to settle before a dispute hardens. The family law team at Law & More can calculate the position, review an existing order and, where it helps, guide the parties through mediation. Get in touch to discuss your situation.