Belgian Child Support: Why There Is No Official Calculator (2026)

Belgium has no binding official scale for child support. Not a table, not a formula, not a government calculator. That single fact is the most useful thing most sources get wrong, and it is the reason this page does not give you a number either.

What the law provides instead is a set of principles, a transparency duty, a fixed list of extraordinary costs, and a state service that steps in when a parent stops paying. Those four pieces tell you far more about a real Belgian child support situation than any of the private calculators that circulate online, none of which carries any legal force.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Why there is no calculator

The law of 19 March 2010 created the Commissie voor onderhoudsbijdragen, the Commission des contributions alimentaires, precisely to address the absence of a shared method. Its mandate, in article 1322 of the Gerechtelijk Wetboek, the Code judiciaire, lets it issue recommendations to the ministers responsible for justice and for family policy. It does not let the Commission set a binding method itself.

The same article lets the King fix an official calculation method by royal decree. More than fifteen years after the founding law, that has never happened. The Commission's own membership was renewed by royal decree in December 2021, and a fresh call for candidates ran in the Moniteur belge, the Belgisch Staatsblad, in June 2025; its working groups on evaluation methods were only set up in December 2022. There is still no official method for those working groups to evaluate.

Into that gap, five private methods have stepped: the méthode Renard, originating in a 1985 study commissioned by the Communauté française, PCA/VOB, Contriweb, the Tremmery model, and the Simulateur de Pareto. Each produces a number. None of them binds a judge, a parent, or DAVO. A tool that presents one of these methods as the answer is offering an opinion with a spreadsheet attached, not a legal calculation, which is exactly why this page does not embed one.

Articles 203 and 203bis: the actual rule

What the old Civil Code actually requires is simpler than any of the private methods, and considerably less precise. Article 203 obliges parents to contribute, in proportion to their respective means, to a child's housing, upkeep, health, supervision, education and training.

Article 203bis fills that in. Paragraphs 1 and 2 have each parent contribute according to their share of the couple's combined means, with a right to claim their share back from the other. Paragraph 3 splits ordinary costs from extraordinary ones, treated separately below. Paragraph 4 lets either parent ask the family court to impose a joint account, held at an approved institution, specifically for the extraordinary costs.

Nowhere in either article is there a percentage, an income bracket or a per-child figure. The proportionality standard is deliberately open, and it is a court, applying the facts of a given family, that turns it into an actual amount.

Article 1321: a duty to explain, not a formula

Article 1321 of the Gerechtelijk Wetboek adds a procedural requirement on top of the substantive rule: both a judgment and a private agreement between parents fixing child support must justify the amount against a set of enumerated criteria. It is a transparency duty. It does not fix a formula, a number or a method, and it does not tell either parent what the outcome should be.

This page cannot confirm the exact enumerated list, or the precise date the requirement took effect. The amending law was published on 31 December 2018; a commonly cited in-force date of 10 January 2019 could not be independently confirmed here. What is confirmed is the effect: whoever sets the number, whether a judge or the parents themselves, has to show their reasoning against criteria set by law, not simply state a figure.

Extraordinary costs: a genuine official list

Ordinary costs, food, housing, everyday clothing, are folded into the ongoing contribution under article 203bis. Extraordinary costs are handled separately, and this is the one part of the system that is fixed by an official text, contrary to what some sources suggest.

The arrêté royal of 22 April 2019, taken under article 203 Paragraph 1 of the old Civil Code, sets four categories: medical and paramedical costs, school-related costs, costs tied to a child's development, and a residual category covering whatever the parents agree, or a judge specifically designates, as extraordinary. The same decree requires quarterly settlement of these costs, with supporting documents attached, and payment within 15 days of the statement being sent. A parent invoking an extraordinary cost outside these four categories, or outside this timetable, is not following the official procedure.

Indexation: consumer prices, not the health index

Article 203quater adjusts maintenance automatically, by operation of law, to the consumer price index, the indice des prix à la consommation. A common description of this as indexed to the health index is incorrect; the health index is a narrower measure used elsewhere in Belgian law, not the default here. A judge may set a different formula in a specific case, and the parents themselves may agree to opt out of automatic indexation altogether.

DAVO / SECAL: what happens when maintenance goes unpaid

DAVO, the Dienst voor alimentatievorderingen, known in French as SECAL, the service des créances alimentaires, is a service of the FOD Financiën, the SPF Finances, created by the law of 21 February 2003 and operating since 2004.

It does two distinct things. It recovers maintenance a parent has stopped paying, using the collection powers of the tax administration. And, separately, it advances maintenance to the parent who is owed it, up to a maximum of 175 euro per month per child, while recovery from the non-paying parent continues in parallel.

The most significant recent change is the income ceiling. Until the law of 9 July 2020, which took effect from 1 June 2020, a parent seeking advances had to fall under an income limit. That ceiling was abolished entirely. There is currently no income test for a parent asking DAVO for advances.

DAVO is not free to the parent who owes the money. A 13 percent operating-cost fee applies to the debt DAVO recovers, and a further 7 percent late-payment interest accrues on any missed deadline. Falling behind on child support in Belgium does not simply defer the amount owed; it increases it.

This page provides general legal information about a foreign legal system and does not constitute legal advice for an individual case. Child support depends on the specific facts of each family, and the underlying law changes from time to time. Check the current text on ejustice.just.fgov.be and fin.belgium.be, or consult a lawyer, before acting on anything here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Belgium have an official child support calculator?

No. The law created a Commission in 2010 that can only recommend a method, and the King has never used the power to fix one by royal decree. Several private tools exist, but none of them has legal force, which is why this page describes the rule rather than offering a calculator.

How do courts actually decide the amount?

Against articles 203 and 203bis of the old Civil Code, which require parents to contribute in proportion to their respective means, and against article 1321 of the Gerechtelijk Wetboek, which requires the amount to be justified against enumerated criteria. There is no fixed formula behind either requirement.

Are private calculators like the méthode Renard legally binding?

No. The méthode Renard, PCA/VOB, Contriweb, the Tremmery model and the Simulateur de Pareto are all private tools with no statutory basis. A court can use one as a reference point or disregard all of them.

What counts as an extraordinary cost?

The arrêté royal of 22 April 2019 fixes four categories: medical and paramedical costs, school-related costs, costs tied to a child's development, and a residual category for whatever the parents agree or a judge designates. The decree also requires quarterly settlement with supporting documents and payment within 15 days.

Does child support increase automatically over time?

Yes, by default. Article 203quater indexes maintenance to the consumer price index, not the health index, unless a judge sets a different formula or the parents agree to opt out.

What happens if the other parent stops paying?

DAVO, known in French as SECAL, can recover the unpaid amount and, separately, advance up to 175 euro per month per child to the parent who is owed it. Since 1 June 2020 there has been no income ceiling for requesting an advance.

Is there a penalty for falling behind on child support?

Yes. DAVO charges a 13 percent operating-cost fee on the debt it recovers, and 7 percent late-payment interest accrues on a missed deadline, on top of whatever was already owed.