Maintenance

Katy_W

Does anyone know if my ex husband has to pay me maintenance if he is no longer working for a few month but has alot of money in savings.

He signed a statement of arrangements for the children and said he would give me a certain amount each month, when we got divorced but it wasn't a court order.

Thanks for reading

brokenlily

Your best bet is to look up on the CSA website. However, if he isn't earning and he is claiming JObseekers Allowance (though he may have too much money in savings to claim, depends how much he has) he would only have to pay £5 a week. Nothing would be payable if he has the children overnight a certain number of nights per month.

flutterby_lil

Try posting this on the benefits board, there is a csa section.

fannyanna

Katy_W wrote: »

he is no longer working for a few month but has alot of money in savings.

Are you able to quantify this?

£6k is a lot to some people where as to others £60k is a lot.

I ask because I think the amount will have quite a bearing on whether or not he has to pay maintenance. I'm not just being nosey

Katy_W

I think he has at least £20k but not sure

fannyanna

Katy_W wrote: »

I think he has at least £20k but not sure

As you have a private arrangement (rather than a court order or arrangement via the CSA) I think he can stop paying at any point as you're both basically operating on good faith.

Obviously if he doesn't comply with the private arrangement your next port of call would be the CSA.

The CSA base child maintenance on income and obviously as he has no income his assessment would be nil. If he's claiming job Seekers Allowance you'd get £5 per week.

Now I'm not really sure how the savings would impact the CSA's assessment. I think up to at least £16k they'd say the assessment was nil or £5 per week if on benefits and disregard the savings. I say that on the basis that you can receive some form of benefit unless you have savings of more than £16k.

The CSA can do some kind of variation to look at things such as assets but I'm not sure at what level they'd look at.

One thing to consider is that you've said your ex is likely to be unemployed for a few months. An application to the CSA isn't likely to be a quick process and you could find that he's back in work again by the time the CSA contact him and you wont have actually gained anything.

You've obviously got a fairly good relationship with your ex on the basis that you've both been sensible enough to agree to a private arrangement. Some people would prefer to keep things on a civil footing rather than complicate things with the CSA. It's a completely individual choice though.

Sorry - not exactly a clear response and doesn't really answer your question