Divorce and Financial Settlements: When Your Child Has Special Educational Needs
The number of children with special educational needs in the UK is increasing. Sadly, some parents with SEN children separate and struggle to agree on a financial settlement that meets everyone's needs.
In this blog, our specialist Family Lawyers explain how a child’s special educational needs can affect a divorce settlement.
SEN children and divorcing parents
According to the latest available government figures, more than 1.7 million schoolchildren in England have special educational needs (SEN). The 2025 statistics reveal:
- Around 14% of schoolchildren receive support for special educational needs.
- Nearly 1.3 million pupils receive SEN support in school.
- About half a million pupils have an education, health, and care (EHC) plan.
Parenting a child with SEN can be both challenging and rewarding. However, parents overwhelmingly report that the stress of fighting for a diagnosis for their child and pleading for educational support from the education authorities places enormous pressure on family relationships. Equally, there are the financial pressures of parenting a child with SEN, especially where one or both parents' earning capacities are affected by their child's needs and the limited education and social support.
The needs of children and the impact on their parents' financial settlement
When separating parents negotiate the division of their assets or ask the court to decide on the appropriate financial order, their Family Law Solicitors or the court consider the factors set out in Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. These factors are wide-ranging, but the needs of all dependent children are the court's top priority.
A child’s needs include:
- Suitable housing.
- Sufficient income in the household to meet their daily living needs.
- Enough household income to meet any reasonable additional costs associated with their disability or SEN.
If a child is being cared for by both of their parents, the child will need suitable accommodation while staying with each parent. When assets are limited or where a child’s needs are such that they can only be primarily cared for by one parent, it can feel as if the court is favouring the parent caring for the child. Under Section 25 of the Act, the court is entitled to do that if there are insufficient assets to meet everyone's needs, as the statute says the court must put the child’s needs first.
Putting a child’s needs first does not mean your child gets to live in a mansion and the parent who is not providing the day-to-day care gets to live in a bedsit. The court will assess the reasonable needs of the child and both of their parents. Needs are partly based on the family's standard of living during the marriage. However, in most situations, standards of living may need to adjust downward after a divorce, as assets used to fund one home and lifestyle are split to purchase and maintain two homes.
SEN children's needs and their impact on financial settlements
Any child is expensive, whether it is their nursery fees, new trainers, laptops, school trips, or the hundreds of things children say they need. When you are the parent of a child with SEN, a child on the autistic spectrum or a neurodivergent youngster, your child may have additional needs when it comes to housing and income requirements. These additional needs are sometimes overlooked when parents are under the stress of divorce and are keen to reach a financial settlement.
Accommodation needs
You may assume that the accommodation needs of all children are the same, but a child with SEN may have special housing needs:
- The child may be unable to share a bedroom with a sibling because of their behaviour or meltdowns.
- A child may struggle with moving house and change.
- You may be tied to staying in an expensive area for housing because of the difficulties of changing your child’s school or transporting them to school if you moved further away.
- You may be homeschooling your child because they are unable to attend school or have been expelled.
- If your child also has physical disabilities, they may require single-storey living or to stay in the family home where adjustments have been made to cater for their needs.
Income needs
Looking after a child with SEN can be particularly expensive because they may:
- Have particular dietary or sensory needs.
- Damage clothing or household items, so you need to purchase replacements regularly.
- Have therapy needs that are not funded by the NHS, or waiting lists are excessive.
- Have additional tutoring needs to help them remain in mainstream education.
- Be unable to cope in a school setting and therefore need homeschooling, which affects your earnings capacity.
- Be unable to cope with pre-school or after-school clubs, or be unable to be left during the school holidays with relatives or in holiday clubs.
- Have numerous health and therapy appointments, making it difficult for you to work full-time.
If your child receives state benefits, this income will be considered when assessing household income requirements. If benefits are not claimed, you may be expected to make an application on your child’s behalf.
Maintenance for children with SEN
If you are divorcing your husband or wife, and you will be your child’s primary carer, you may be entitled to several types of child maintenance payments:
- Child support assessed by the Child Maintenance Service.
- Top up child support under a court order or by agreement.
- Additional maintenance for the costs associated with your child’s disability or SEN.
- Private school fees order if your child is in private education.
Child support can either be agreed or assessed by the Child Maintenance Service. The calculation is based on a formula rather than on the amount of your income shortfall or your child’s needs. If your child is co-parented and the care is equal, the child support rules state that no child support is payable, even if there is a wide income discrepancy between the two households.
The court can order a top-up child support if the Child Maintenance Service has made a maximum child support assessment under its rules.
A parent can ask the court to make a child maintenance order to cover the costs associated with a child’s disability. For a child with SEN, this may include therapy costs or additional transport costs.
If a child is privately educated, the court can order a parent to pay all or part of the child’s private school fees. Sometimes, when parents separate, difficult questions arise about whether private education remains affordable. If your child is being educated privately because their needs were not being met in mainstream education, then you may need a specific issue order or prohibited steps order if your spouse does not agree to your child remaining in private education. This order may be necessary in addition to the school fee order.
Spousal maintenance
In addition to the various types of child support, your spouse may agree, or the court may be persuaded to make an order for spousal maintenance. Nowadays, the court tries to make a clean break financial court order wherever possible to end any further financial claims between a husband and wife. That is not always possible, especially where the primary carer of a child with SEN either cannot work because of their child’s needs, can only work part-time or has had their earnings capacity affected by time spent as a stay-at-home parent.
How the Family Lawyers at OTS Solicitors can help you
At OTS Solicitors, we provide bespoke and empathetic family law advice tailored to your family situation. We will try to ensure that you can reach an agreement on the child care and parenting arrangements without applying for a child arrangement order, a prohibited steps order, or a specific issue order. This can often be achieved through solicitor negotiations or by our solicitors providing legal advice during family mediation.
If you cannot reach an agreement over parenting time or agree on a financial settlement, our Family Law Solicitors will carefully present the best case to ask the court to exercise its discretion and make a child arrangement order that caters for your child’s SEN or a financial court order that fully reflects your child’s needs and the impact of your child’s SEN on your accommodation and income requirements.
At OTS Solicitors, we understand the challenges of divorcing when you have a child or children with SEN, especially when the children require stability and routine, as any disruption can overwhelm them and make your life so much more complicated. We will focus on ensuring you understand your options and rights, and on presenting the best case to help your child and to achieve the best outcome for you and your family.
Appointments are available at our London office, by phone, or online.
Our lawyers speak Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French/Mauritian Creole, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog/Ilonggo, and Urdu/Punjabi.
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