Parents are obligated to pay to support their children, even when separated.
There are a range of court proceedings and other ways of dealing with child maintenance and financial provision.
Normally parents are prevented from asking the divorce courts to set child maintenance orders unless one of the following circumstances apply, namely
the amount of maintenance is agreed or
the maintenance is for a step child
the CSA regulations do not apply (for example there is one parent who lives abroad)
a request is made to top up the CSA payment or pay school fees