Understanding the Maintenance Apportionment Formula in South Africa
If you're going through a divorce or separation in South Africa and children are involved, you'll almost certainly encounter the maintenance apportionment formula. It's the standard method family courts use to divide shared household expenses fairly between the members of a household. Understanding how it works is the first step to building a strong maintenance claim.
What is the apportionment formula?
The formula is simple in principle: every person in the household is assigned a number of portions based on their age. These portions determine what fraction of shared expenses each person is responsible for.
- Each adult counts as 2 portions
- Each minor child (under 18) counts as 1 portion
The total portions are added up, and each shared expense is divided by that total. The claimant then claims their own portion plus the portions of any children in their care.
A practical example
Consider a household with 2 adults and 2 minor children:
- Adults: 2 × 2 = 4 portions
- Children: 2 × 1 = 2 portions
- Total: 6 portions
If the monthly rent is R12,000, each portion is worth R2,000. The custodial parent (1 adult = 2 portions) plus 2 children (2 portions) would claim 4 portions × R2,000 = R8,000 of the rent.
What expenses are apportioned?
The formula applies to shared household expenses — costs that benefit everyone living in the home:
- Rent or bond payments
- Groceries and food
- Utilities (electricity, water)
- Household insurance
- Internet and streaming services
- Cleaning supplies
- Security and alarm
What about child-specific expenses?
Not all expenses should be divided across the entire household. Child-specific expenses like school fees, medical aid, aftercare, and extramural activities only benefit the claimant and their children — not other adults in the household.
For these items, a fairer approach is to apportion them only among the claimant's portions (the claimant's adult portions plus their children's portions), rather than the whole household total. This prevents the non-custodial parent from unfairly benefiting from a diluted share of expenses that don't apply to them. Learn more about correctly categorizing child-specific vs shared expenses.
Why accuracy matters
Family courts and maintenance officers expect a well-structured schedule with clear calculations. Errors in apportionment — whether from incorrect portion counts or misclassified expenses — can weaken your case or lead to an unfair outcome.
That's exactly why we built MMaintenance: to automate the formula, handle both shared and child-specific expenses correctly, and produce a professional schedule you can submit with confidence. Our platform also includes features like AI-powered bank statement import to save you hours of manual data entry.
Ready to build your maintenance schedule? Create your free account and have your court-ready schedule in minutes.