Nafaqa (Maintenance) in the UAE: Spousal and Child Support Explained

Nafaqa, or maintenance, is the financial support one family member is legally obliged to provide to another in the UAE — most commonly a husband's support for his wife and a father's support for his children. Nafaqa covers the essentials of daily life: housing, food, clothing, and reasonable medical and educational costs. It can be owed during marriage, during the post-divorce waiting period, and for children after a separation. This guide explains what nafaqa means in the UAE, who pays it, how the personal status court decides the amount, and how to claim or respond.

What nafaqa (maintenance) means

Nafaqa is the duty to financially support a dependent. In UAE family law it usually appears in three forms: spousal maintenance (a husband maintaining his wife during the marriage), post-divorce maintenance (support owed during the wife's waiting period, and sometimes a compensatory payment), and child maintenance (a father's duty to support his children).

For Muslims and Emiratis, maintenance sits within the UAE Personal Status framework. The longstanding statute was the UAE [Personal Status Law](/dictionary/personal-status-law) (Federal Law No. 28 of 2005), which the UAE has since replaced with a new Personal Status Law issued in 2024. For non-Muslims, family matters can instead fall under [Federal Decree-Law](/dictionary/federal-decree-law) No. 41 of 2022 on Civil Personal Status, a separate civil track. You can read both frameworks on the UAE Government Portal (u.ae) and the UAE Ministry of Justice (moj.gov.ae). Because the governing statute and its article numbers were updated in 2024, the exact decree number and in-force date of the new Personal Status Law are set by the UAE federal legislature and can change, so confirm the current law and its article numbers with the Ministry of Justice (or a licensed UAE lawyer) before relying on a specific provision.

What nafaqa covers

Nafaqa is meant to maintain a dependent's reasonable standard of living, not to enrich them. In practice it is understood to cover:

• Housing — accommodation or its cost, appropriate to the family's circumstances.
• Food — day-to-day living expenses.
• Clothing — seasonal and reasonable.
• Medical care — healthcare and treatment costs.
• For children: schooling, childcare, and the practical costs of raising a child.

Maintenance for a wife and maintenance for a child are assessed separately — a wife's nafaqa reflects the husband's means and the wife's needs, while child nafaqa reflects the child's needs and the father's ability to pay. What is treated as "reasonable" is decided case by case by the personal status court, so the headings above are a guide, not a fixed list.

Spousal maintenance: when a wife is entitled

During a valid marriage, a husband generally has a duty to maintain his wife. This is a core feature of UAE personal status law and does not depend on the wife having her own income. A wife may stop being entitled to maintenance in specific situations recognised by the law — for example where she has left the marital home without a lawful reason — but those are determined by the court on the facts.

After a divorce, a divorced wife is typically entitled to maintenance during her waiting period (iddah) — the defined period after divorce during which she may not remarry. In some cases a court may also award a compensatory payment (mut'ah) to a divorced wife. The length of the waiting period and how any compensatory payment is calculated are set by the UAE Personal Status Law and assessed by the court, and the exact duration and basis can change, so confirm the current figures with the Ministry of Justice (or a licensed UAE lawyer) before relying on them.

Child maintenance: the father's obligation

A father generally bears the duty to maintain his children, and this duty is treated as continuing regardless of which parent has day-to-day custody. Child maintenance is owed until a child is financially independent — typically until a son can support himself and until a daughter marries or earns her own income — but the precise cut-off points are defined by the personal status law.

Importantly, child maintenance is the child's right, not the custodial parent's. That means it is generally not waived simply because the parents agree privately, and a court can be asked to set or revisit the amount. Because the conditions for when child maintenance starts and ends were addressed in the 2024 reform, the exact ages and conditions are set by the UAE Personal Status Law and can change, so confirm the current rules with the Ministry of Justice (or a licensed UAE lawyer) rather than assuming an age.

How the court decides the amount

There is no single nationwide "nafaqa table." Instead, the personal status court sets a figure proportionate to two things: the payer's income and means, and the dependent's reasonable needs. The court weighs evidence such as salary certificates, bank statements, rent and tuition costs, and the family's established standard of living.

The amount is not permanently fixed. Either party can ask the court to increase or decrease maintenance if circumstances change materially — for instance, a salary rise or loss, a new job, or a change in the child's needs. UAE personal status law also allows a claim for backdated maintenance that went unpaid, within a limit set by the statute; the exact look-back period and any procedure to vary an existing order are set by the UAE Personal Status Law and can change, so confirm the current limit with the Ministry of Justice (or a licensed UAE lawyer) before relying on it.

Court filing fees apply to a maintenance case. These are government court fees paid to the court — not a payment to any third party — and the exact fee is set by the relevant emirate's judicial authority and reviewed periodically and can change, so confirm the current figure with that judicial authority (the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, Dubai Courts, or the relevant emirate court) before you budget.

How to claim nafaqa, step by step

While the exact channel and steps are set by each emirate's judicial authority and can be updated, a maintenance claim in the UAE generally follows this shape:

1. Family guidance / reconciliation. Many personal status disputes start at a family guidance or reconciliation committee, which attempts an amicable settlement before the case goes to a judge.
2. File the claim. If no settlement is reached, file a maintenance claim with the personal status court, setting out what is sought (spousal nafaqa, child nafaqa, or both) and the amount.
3. Submit evidence. Provide identity documents, the marriage contract, and evidence of needs and means — salary certificates, bank statements, rent and school-fee records.
4. Hearings. The court reviews the evidence, hears both sides, and may ask for further documents.
5. [Judgment](/dictionary/judgment). The court issues a maintenance order fixing the monthly amount and any backdated sum.
6. Enforcement if unpaid. If the paying party does not comply, the order can be referred to the execution (enforcement) court to recover what is owed.

Whether your matter begins at family guidance, what documents are mandatory, and how enforcement is pursued are set by the local judicial authority and can change, so confirm the current procedure with that judicial authority (the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, Dubai Courts, or the relevant emirate court, or a licensed UAE lawyer) before relying on a fixed sequence.

Nafaqa for non-Muslims

Non-Muslim families in the UAE may have their family matters dealt with under the civil personal status framework — Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on Civil Personal Status — rather than the Sharia-based personal status law. Under the civil track, financial support after divorce and arrangements for children are approached on civil-law principles, and a court can consider factors such as the length of the marriage and each party's financial position.

The practical effect is that a non-Muslim couple's maintenance and child-support outcome can differ from the position under the Personal Status Law for Muslims. For background on the civil framework and how divorce works under it, see our guides to divorce for expats in the UAE and the UAE divorce cost and lawyer fees. Which framework applies to you depends on your circumstances, so confirm it before assuming a position.

How nafaqa fits with custody and divorce

Maintenance rarely travels alone. It usually arises alongside divorce and decisions about who cares for the children, so it helps to see the whole picture:

• Custody and care. Who the child lives with affects the maintenance arrangement. See child custody after divorce in the UAE.
• Khula divorce. Where a wife seeks a khula divorce, maintenance entitlements can be affected — see khula divorce in the UAE.
• The wider divorce process. Maintenance is one head of claim within a divorce; see divorce for expats: process, custody and costs and, for Abu Dhabi specifically, the Abu Dhabi family law guide.

If you want help understanding which framework applies and what a realistic maintenance figure looks like in your situation, browse family-law lawyers on LEXAI or ask a first question with the AI legal assistant.

When to get a lawyer

You can file a maintenance claim yourself, and family guidance is designed to be accessible. But nafaqa cases turn on evidence and on how the court reads your circumstances, and the choices inside them — what to claim, how to prove income and needs, how to respond to a claim against you, and how to enforce an unpaid order — have real financial consequences over years, not months. A UAE family lawyer is most useful when income is disputed or hard to prove, when there are children and custody in play, when a maintenance order is not being paid, or when it is unclear whether the Sharia-based or civil framework applies. To have someone confirm your position and prepare or defend a claim, browse family-law lawyers on LEXAI, or ask the AI legal assistant to point you in the right direction first.

This is general legal information, not legal advice; confirm current procedure with the relevant personal status court or a licensed UAE lawyer.