Child maintenance

Jobseeeker

shegirl wrote: »

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

Not her OH, her ex partner gets the £250. As the NRP she will get nothing.

shegirl

Apologies I misread it:o

In that case he should be getting more than £250 a week.Not that that actually matters

sacha28

She will need to pay CM and the travel costs will not be taken into account. The only thing with that is, legally, her ex is responsible for meeting your daughter at a half-way point for access visits. I know this to be true as my oh went to a solicitor last year when his ex moved his dd 400 miles away and he wanted to know what his rights were (not much other than the meeting point, sadly).

Surely if her ex meets her half way to drop-off, pick up then this will halve the cost?

CM is not considered when it comes to benefits, he could get several hundred pounds a month in CM and his benefits cannot be affected. I have to say, if she does only have to pay £20pw for 3 children then she is very lucky. My oh earned £250pw when he and his ex split and they only have 1 child and he was stung for £55pw.

How long has the situation been like this? If it has been a while and the CSA isn't yet involved then she is going to get hammered for the time she hasn't paid, unless she can prove she has been paying CM in another way. Just a thought.

Caz3121

If the children average 2 nights per week with their mum then there will be a deduction of 2/7ths of the maintenance which means she will pay around 18% of her net income rather than the standard 25% for 3 children
For the travel costs there is a variation however, from memory, you cannot have the shared care discount and the travel excess. They use a standard £15 per week for travel and look at reducing the income used in the calculation by the excess so the saving is tiny. eg if she was spending £20 per week on travel, they would reduce her income by £5 per week giving a saving of £1.25 per week in the maintenance payment so the shared care (2/7th) discount will be worth more than that
She may be entitled to working tax credits if she is working 30 hours plus and they will also use this as income in the calculation

tea_lover

sacha28 wrote: »

I have to say, if she does only have to pay £20pw for 3 children then she is very lucky. My oh earned £250pw when he and his ex split and they only have 1 child and he was stung for £55pw.

Lovely turn of phrase. Maintenance shouldn't be about paying the minimum you can get away with.

sacha28

tea_lover wrote: »

Lovely turn of phrase. Maintenance shouldn't be about paying the minimum you can get away with.

Sorry I didn't mean that to sound as it came out. What I meant is that £20pw for 3 kids is not very much when my oh paid almost 3x that for one child on similar income.