Child maintenance

stickywicket

Hello. Would someone be able to tell me whether my daughter will have to pay child maintenance. She has 3 young children who live with their father. She has them to stay 2-3 nights wk over the year. She is about to start work for the first time and will be earning about £190/week and will come off benefits. Her ex partner gets about £250/week in benefits. She has been paying the taxi to collect the children who live in a remote village with no public transport about £15 three times a month for the past 2 years while on benefit and this has been a struggle. Her ex moved out of town to a village 2 years ago. . She and her ex have a difficult relationship and he has not given her money to support the children when she has them. If child maintenance were to be formally set up, would these taxi payments be taken into account as I think the ex should have paid them.. Looking forward to hearing from someone. Stickywicket.

19lottie82

Legally yes she will, using the CSA calculator, she will need to pay her ex husband £25 a week. This may change if she is claiming tax credits?

I'm afraid if she in the non resident parent the travel costs involved when they visit her will be her responsibility and not taken into account if he involves the CSA in his maintenance claim.

kingfisherblue

19lottie82 wrote: »

Legally yes she will, using the CSA calculator, she will need to pay her ex husband £25 a week. This may change if she is claiming tax credits?

I'm afraid if she in the non resident parent the travel costs involved when they visit her will be her responsibility and not taken into account if he involves the CSA in his maintenance claim.

NRPs have to pay travel costs, but if they are high, the NRP can ask for a variation. This means that a lower amount of maintenance would be paid if a variation is allowed. As it is the parent with care who has moved, another option is to ask if they will meet half way.

OP, if your daughter has the children two or three nights a week, why is she paying a taxi three times a month? I would have thought it would have been at least once a week for the taxi, possibly twice a week (once to collect children and a second time to return them).

lolavix

Why should he give her money for when she has them? I would have thought she should be paying maintenance to him, and then cover any costs she incurs when she has them.

ostrichnomore_2

There is a calculator here: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-child-maintenance/y
Looks like she'll pay £20 a week.

newcook

kingfisherblue wrote: »

OP, if your daughter has the children two or three nights a week, why is she paying a taxi three times a month? I would have thought it would have been at least once a week for the taxi, possibly twice a week (once to collect children and a second time to return them).

The way I read it was that she sees the children in the week but only has them to stay overnight a couple of times a year

stickywicket

When the 3 children are staying with the NRP a third of the year, what happens to the benefit money that is claimed by the resident parent? Would he be expected to contribute to the NRP costs when she has the children? Would the taxi journeys that both parents pay for, be considered as part of the parental contribution? Might the agency say that the NRP should pay for all the taxi journeys the children make to visit and stay with their mother thanks for your helpful comments.

19lottie82

stickywicket wrote: »

When the 3 children are staying with the NRP a third of the year, what happens to the benefit money that is claimed by the resident parent? Would he be expected to contribute to the NRP costs when she has the children? Would the taxi journeys that both parents pay for, be considered as part of the parental contribution? Might the agency say that the NRP should pay for all the taxi journeys the children make to visit and stay with their mother thanks for your helpful comments.

I think this has already been covered. The taxi journeys are separate to any maintenance that the CSA could order your daughter to pay.

The CSA will not offset the cost of these against any maintenance payments. It is not the CSAs job to get involved with travel arrangements.

As someone has said, if the travel costs for the NRP are very high, then it may be decided by a judge (not the CSA) that the RP should contribute, but I'm afraid £45 a month is not considered anywhere near "high"

Any child related benefits go to the RP. If they want to "share" it with the NRP, then that's fine, but this must be a personal arrangement between the two parties, no one can force them.

Can I ask why you seem so against your daughter paying for her kids?

stickywicket

You raise a good point. Up to now my daughter has never worked and she lives with a partner who also has difficulties and has not worked. We subsidise her as she has been caught by the bedroom tax living in a 2 bed roomed flat. Their combined benefits are very low and she pays for some taxi journeys. In principal she should pay towards the children but it would be hard to pay more. Thanks for your thoughts, they have been helpful.

shegirl

stickywicket wrote: »

You raise a good point. Up to now my daughter has never worked and she lives with a partner who also has difficulties and has not worked. We subsidise her as she has been caught by the bedroom tax living in a 2 bed roomed flat. Their combined benefits are very low and she pays for some taxi journeys. In principal she should pay towards the children but it would be hard to pay more. Thanks for your thoughts, they have been helpful.

How can their combined benefits be very low when her oh gets £250 a week just for his?!

She will have to pay.She will get a small reduction for having the kids overnight if she has them for at least 52 nights a year.

When it comes to travel costs,£15 three times a month isn't much so it's unlikely she'd get a variation,I would've thought.

Is she only having them overnight three times a month or is somebody else transporting the kids at other times?

19lottie82

shegirl wrote: »

How can their combined benefits be very low when her oh gets £250 a week just for his?!

I think that the OP's daughter won't get much, as she is the non resident parent.

£250 for a single parent with 3 kids to raise, isn't really that much, is it? I would have assumed you would get more, if it was including everything (housing benefit and council tax)?