Child Support under a court order

Taloola78

I do.
I'm a single parent and have never had a penny from my daughter's father. He doesn't want to know. He is in the armed forces and I know for a fact if I chased it he would be made to pay but I am not the type of person to do so.
I got myself a job and decided there and then that I would never rely on him for anything.
I am not trying to be nasty but as one of the op has said, you should never really rely on child support to pay bills. I would treat it as a bonus.

MXW

I also work, maybe your earnings cover your living expenses, mine don't and i'm not being nasty. When your ex lives all but 5 minutes away and has recently bought a 4 bedroomed detached house, drives a new BMW and takes his partner and her grown up kids abroad at least twice a year and his own kid's go without......then I think he has a right to support his children, his earnings 5 years ago were well in excess of £50,000.

Taloola78

You are correct he does have a right to support his kids but would it not bet better that he did it willingly.
I think that say's more about him than you. The way he is behaving will come back to haunt him one day.
I was just trying to point out that it shouldn't be relied on, as anyting could happen. He could die,emigrate or something. Was just my thoughts. I will go away now.
Best of luck with it.

Zara33

Taloola78 lets just hope you never find yourself in a position unemployment for example where you have no choice but to tell the CSA who the father is.
You are ineffect denying your child something that she is entitled to.

kelloggs36

Just confused as to why you have a Court order at all? Especially when the CSA were involved with his ex - the Courts shouldn't be making any child maintenance orders at all since 1993. So I presume that you have had this Court order since before then?

Could you not put it to the Court that they use his year to date figures from his employer as the CSA can when calculating the amount of maintenance that he should pay? That way, all his overtime would show up! You could stress what you have on here, that he will try and hide his true income. You could also prove how much he paid for his house etc by getting details from the Land Registry (it is public information so any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry can get the info) - then you could argue that he wouldn't be able to buy such an expensive house on his low income.

If you DO go to the CSA, you can put on the forms what he is like and ask them to look at year to date figures to get a more true reflection of his income.

kelloggs36

MJMum wrote:

What goes around...

Meaning what, exactly?

kelloggs36

Zara33 wrote:

Bit harsh eh!

Just thinking of the top of my head i could be totally incorect here, but i would assume the court order would overrule the CSA
Think about it if a NRP doesn't pay CSA they take him to court to enforce payments.

If a client is on benefits, then the CSA WILL overrule any Court order already in place. If a private Client, then they won't. However, considering that the Courts have been unable to make orders for child maintenance since 1993, this scenario is becoming less and less as the youngest any child would be would be 13 years old now. I am guessing that this is the case with the OP? If not, then the Court order should never have been made!

kelloggs36

Scarlett1 wrote:

to reduce his income is he stopping working overtime for a couple of weeks/months ?

I wonder if the courts can apply through his payroll department to look at his work history to see if he is intentionally doing this just to reduce his income for a liitle while ?
I dont know if the CSA will get involved if there is an existing court order in place, maybe kellogs can advise you if she see's this

I would implore the OP to go to the Court and beg them to do this! The CSA would certainly do this if there was a pattern of this behaviour - in fact they can leave an existing assessment in place on the grounds that he has deliberately deprived himself of income in order to reduce his child support, thus calling the NRP's bluff!

MXW

The court order was taken out on advice from my solicitor in 2002 as when he left us, I was on a career break and at that time no earnings. When he left, against the advice of his solicitor he stopped paying the mortgage, bills etc and the only income I had was my child benefit. As a result of this I was left in severe debt, with mortgage, gas/elec etc, he moved into my house when we met and I put his name on the mortgage, he then tried to claim half of the house even though he had only been living there for 7 years. Because of all this and the fact that he refused to pay child support, the judge agreed to make a court order as if I waited for a csa assessment it would take months and months and I would end up in further debt. I returned to work and eventually paid off all the debts. I'm afraid he is like a dog with a bone and will not let it go....in the 5 years we have been apart, last year was the first year I haven't been summoned to court by him for 1 thing or another. I have to admit the courts have been very good and have always supported me, but he will go to any lengths to avoid paying. My worry is that he might pull the wool over the courts eyes....when we were in court of wednesday, the legal adviser said he would have to refer the case to the county court because his schedule of income and outgoings were not straight forward and complicated. What he is now trying to do is either revoke the order altogether (which has previously been refused) or reduce his payments. To be honest I am growing really weary of this, it's been an ongoing battle for 5 years!! I don't know what authority the csa have to demand info, I have spoken to several people at the csa, some say they would look into it, some say they would just accept the info he supplied. It speaks for itself when he has got his local mp involved in this (although from what I can gather the judge threw it out!) Thank you very much for your advice, it's appreciated.

kelloggs36

I wonder if the order was for SPOUSAL maintenance? They can't make Child maintenance orders now - so you could actually claim via the CSA anyway?