From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishchild supportˈchild supˌport (also maintenance British English) noun [uncountable] PEWmoney that someone pays regularly to their former wife or husband in order to support their children
Examples from the Corpus
child support• Maintenance and child support Bradshaw and Millar found that only 29 percent of lone parents received maintenance from their former partners.• Nachshin argued that $ 30,000 a month in permanent spousal and child support would be enough.• Other trends noted by the report: The average California county collects only $ 78 monthly for each child support order.• But Garcetti said his office has made strides in child support collections.• It also collected more child support money than the state average.• But we have no right to force collection of child support for the kids.• This approach to child support also gives priority to a particular type of family relationship - that based on biological parenthood.• The way in which child support is calculated means that the amount payable can vary according to a number of different factors. 