Child maintenance

SammyPops

Sorry but it's me again with more pesky questions!

I've spent the weekend writing a budget which I can stick to. Just to throw a spanner in the works, my ex has been on the phone wanting to reduce the child maintenance.

His average take home pay is £1600 a month. It's £1400 basic, but he gets regular overtime and it's rare just to have a basic month. When we split up in March 2002, he agreed to pay me £350 a month. This was worked out on the old CSA rules, but he has made payments voluntarily without the need to involve the CSA. I've had the £350 every month for 3 years and depend on it.

He said he wants to cut that down to between £200-250 as he wants to move in with his g/f and her son. A shortfall of that amount will hit me hard and I am not happy about it.

What should he be paying really and can I expect him to continue with the £350 as it's set a standard if you know what I mean.

He also said if my b/f moved in, it would be better for him as he would pay next to nothing. However I don't think that is right as my b/f's income is nothing to do with my ex is it?

Confused and appreciative of help.

sunflower_2

SNAP !!!!

my ex was giving me £300 a month
he earns about £2000 a month plus overtime

he has bought a house with his girlfriend who prob earns about £1500 a month

he halved the amount of maintenance to £150 a month last year

i tried to go through CSA but they are hopeless and ended up saying I wasnt entitled to anything
they believed my ex when he claimed that we had joint custody

so now i have to ask for the £150 each month and act as though he is doing me a huge favour :mad:
its awful
i wish i didnt need it !!!!

the CSA dont take a partner's income into consideration
at least this is what they told me anyway !

chardonnay_2

hi, i think the csa would only take into account his basic salary as the overtime isn't every month. at the moment they would take 15% of his wages. they do not take partners income into it, but they can reduce the amount he pays if he takes the kid overnight for 1 night a week. if your b/f moved in it would have no bearing on the amount your ex is due as he still has to provide for his child.

might be worth checking with the csa whether they would take his overtime into account. if not he would only be due you approx £210 per month - so it would be better for you to get him to pay £250 and not go through the csa.

hth

loafer_2

IIRC they average it out over the year based on a few months slips. Worth checking though.

Spendless

My friends ex has bonus paid to him twice a year. Friend asked for this to be taken into account as she said it formed a big chunk of his wages, to start off with it was but last year when asked to submit 3 wage slips, he didn't submit the one with the bonus on!!!

Friends maintainance has gone down as a result.

I was reading on here recently of a similar situation and the poster said that for this reason she asked for maintainance to be worked out asking his P60.

Unfortunately i can't remember the thread so i can't give any details.

SammyPops

Thanks for the help

I'm currently living on about £50-60 a week after housing, utilities and other bills. That's all I have left for food, transport costs etc. If the payment goes from £350 to £240 a month, it's going to hit me really hard. Guess I will have to redo the budget.

The frustrating thing is that the money he gives me is used to feed, clothe and keep a roof over his childrens heads. He rarely sees them (his choice as I've never blocked access) so it's muggins who looks after them all the time.

He can afford to flit off for weekends to places like Prague, Dublin and Barcelona, yet is going to hurt me financially when the boys are just as much his responsibility as mine. It's not fair!!

On the plus side, the boys don't care for their Dad and I get all the love and cuddles from them which is priceless

nearlyrich

He can afford to flit off for weekends to places like Prague, Dublin and Barcelona, yet is going to hurt me financially when the boys are just as much his responsibility as mine. It's not fair!!

On the plus side, the boys don't care for their Dad and I get all the love and cuddles from them which is priceless

Unfortunately some parents are feckless and don't take responsibility for their children, the CSA has had a lot of bad press but it is sometimes the people involved who lie and cheat to get out of paying a fair amount of maintenance.

When you are stuggling to make ends meet and your ex is living the high life it is hard to take, but what goes around comes around and children know which parent is taking care of their needs.

Keep your chin up and be proud of the fact that you are doing the right thing and make the most of those cuddles, they grow up all too fast.

Good luck with your new budget.:)

one-non-blonde

Isn't it 15% for one, 20% for two and 25% for three children?

Been thinking a lot about this recently too. I was calculated under the old rules 5 years ago and my payments (c£500 per month) haven't changed since, which means that in real terms I've lost quite a lot of money as it's not linked to inflation. :mad: I've considered asking for a new assessment but as this would again be under the old rules I think I would come out worse off as they would still take housing costs into consideration and the ex has since taken out the biggest mortgage he could get and the poshest company car (hence higher tax) so what he has left is less than it was when initially assessed (or so he says!) I think the new rules would see his payments increase substantially but there's no sign of it being brought in in the near future.

£500 a month seems pretty good but considering he earns approaching, if not more than, 6 figures it infuriates me that he gets off so lightly and lives in luxury while his kids (boy & girl, both approaching 10) have to share a room in a tiny 2-bed flat in a not great area. Also, at his level in his industry it's common to earn a substantial amount in profit-share at the end of the year (this can be say an extra 20% of annual income) which I'm pretty sure the CSA weren't told about.

One of these days I'll start a vent thread on what mean b*ggers ex's can be...

Spendless

Hi one non blonde

Can't suggest anything about your maintainance, but re the children having to share a bedroom.
Is it your own place or a council flat? If the latter is it worth pestering council for a 3 bed place.

If it is keep pestering though. A friend of mine has a 14 year gap between her son and daughter (by different partners) and tried several times to get a 3bed place with no luck. She wanted to stay in area where there are few council properties left, but the twice a 3 bed place did come up she didn't get it.

In end she has bought the place and is having an extension built. Friend is fortunate that she has 2 downstairs reception rooms so has been able to make son a downstairs bedroom.

Might be worth you chasing this one up now for your kids.

best wishes

one-non-blonde

Spendless wrote:

Is it your own place or a council flat? If the latter is it worth pestering council for a 3 bed place.

Thanks for that Spendless, but I bought the flat myself. It was all I could afford... well technically it was all the mortgage company would allow me to borrow, which was a lot less (don't know if anyone else has tried to get a mortgage based on tax credits, maintenance and part-time income but it's quite a challenge!). Buying was going to work out much cheaper than renting.

My mum keeps suggesting that I should be on a sofa-bed in the lounge to give the kids more space :eek:

Prudent

Spendless wrote:

My friends ex has bonus paid to him twice a year. Friend asked for this to be taken into account as she said it formed a big chunk of his wages, to start off with it was but last year when asked to submit 3 wage slips, he didn't submit the one with the bonus on!!!

Friends maintainance has gone down as a result.

I was reading on here recently of a similar situation and the poster said that for this reason she asked for maintainance to be worked out asking his P60.

Unfortunately i can't remember the thread so i can't give any details.

I am wondering if I was that poster. I was indeed in that position and did post about it. My ex declared an income of £38,000 to the CSA in the first year I claimed. In fact his income was £52,00 in that year. As I receive 15% of his after tax income, I was missing a bit chunk of the money I was due. I took the assessment to appeal and showed through his P60 and bank statements (which showed a lifestyle totally inconsistnet with his stated earnings) that he earned far more. I obtained these as the result of a court action over another matter in our separation.
However as he is still misleading the CSA, they now assess his income via the p60. they will do this on request. My ex never sends them a pay slip showing his bonus and these vary. Last year the p60 showed earnings of £57,000 so my money was increased. I will request they do the same again this year.