CSA and joint custody

chodaboy2005

I have read through a lot of the threads on this subject and its clear that feelings run high on both sides of the fence. I've been trying to find someone in a similar situation as me but there doesn’t seem to be any.
My wife left me for another man 6 months ago. She left after I found out about her affair, left me with the house and our 2 kids.
The difficulty for me is that I do shift work. My job were very accomodating and allowed me to do 9-5 for a while until I got my situation sorted. My ex moved into her own place after 3 months of me having the kids full time and we agreed that she would have the kids overnight while I worked night and late shifts (obviously I would be unable to work these shifts with kids at home!).
As I work a lot of night shifts, this has meant that the kids sleep at her place most nights, so she is considered the primary carer (and gets the child benefit)
BUT, I have the kids the majority of the time during the day. She drops them to me on her way to work in the morning so I do the school run. I pick them up from school most days, do them dinner, bath them, etc. She then picks them up on her way home from work at about 8pm, takes them to hers and puts them to bed.
This agreement works really well as it means we can both work full time and both see the kids a lot. HOWEVER, now she is demanding child maintenance as she has them most nights. My argument is that it doesn’t cost any money to have them overnight as they are asleep! But according to CSA rules, I will have to give her maintenance as they spend the nights with her! During waking hours, the time they spend with each of us is about the same, we have 'joint custody'.
So my question is, how is this fair?
I do earn more than my ex, but that is by choice. She recently gave up a very well paid job (more than me!) because she wasn’t happy and wanted to persue a much less well paid 'artistic' career. Which I fully supported her in. She could quite easily go back to her previous career to earn more, but chooses not to.

shoe*diva79

I can see this is unfair. The only way around it is for you to put a counter claim for child benefit in and hope it gets transferred. She may not agree to it being transferred so you will have to write to them etc.

Its the only way tho as if your kids don't actually sleep at your house, you don't even get the reduction allowing for this.

chodaboy2005

Until this month the child benefit was coming to me, but I agreed to let her have it as her income is less. I think now that perhaps this was what she had planned when she asked for the child benefit to be in her name.
I dont begrudge anything for my kids, they get whatever they need from me, as well as time, attention and love.
I just dont see why I should be paying her to look after her own children. I pay when I have them. And she should be paying when she has them!

shoe*diva79

Hmmm you probably wont be successful then. If you cant come to a private arrangement with her then she can use the CSA. If you refuse to pay they can impose a deduction of earnings order on your salary.

Has she come up with a figure she wants? As a rough guide, if the kids don't stay overnight with you, the CSA will expect 20% of your net salary to be paid to her for the children.

Cally_Smart

Some people claim CB for one child each which evens things up a bit .I think you counter claim against each other with cancel things out but you wouldn't get reduction for nights unless you can have them at the weekends.

chodaboy2005

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Has she come up with a figure she wants? As a rough guide, if the kids don't stay overnight with you, the CSA will expect 20% of your net salary to be paid to her for the children.

I have them overnight whenever I am not working, on average, 2 - 3 nights a week. She has used the child maintenance calculator and worked it out to be £79 a week. Which is not a huge amount I know, but it will leave me short, especially when she left me with ££thousands's of debt.

shoe*diva79

chodaboy2005 wrote: »

I have them overnight whenever I am not working, on average, 2 - 3 nights a week. She has used the child maintenance calculator and worked it out to be £79 a week. Which is not a huge amount I know, but it will leave me short, especially when she left me with ££thousands's of debt.

For 2 children it would be 20% of net pay then reduce by 3/7ths.

What Cally has said about claims cancelling each ither out is not correct.

If you both claim CB for one child each, you can both put a claim for CM in. You will each have to then pay 15% of your net pay, less reductions for overnight stays.

With regard to the debt, is it all in your name? If so, no recourse im afraid. Maybe pop to the debt free wannabe board for advice?