Well, the short answer is yes. There are two types of maintenance. There’s child maintenance and that’s payable to cover or go towards the costs of children. And then there’s spousal maintenance which goes towards the costs of the husband or wife. Child maintenance is paid to the parent the child lives with or spends most time with. So if that happens to be the father, then the wife will pay the husband child maintenance. Spousal maintenance is payable if there’s a divorce, and it can be paid by the highest earner to the lowest earner where there is a need to top up the lower earner’s income. So if the husband happens to be the lower earner the wife may well find that she has a maintenance claim against her or actually ends up paying him spousal maintenance. That maintenance can be paid where there are no children at all, and the husband or wife might need maintenance to top up their income or it can be paid where child maintenance is being paid just to top up the child maintenance.
