Flat Rate and total income

2039475

I have full custody of my two children. My ex husband is on income-based ESA and also receives mid-rate care DLA, high rate mobility DLA, severe disability premium, and LHA (housing benefit). Altogether, he receives just under £1600/month. Is this taken into consideration at all when calculating maintenance, or does he only have to pay £7/week even though he gets such a large amount coming in? He doesn't spend any of it on care-related things, just catalogues and internet/TV packages. (I don't want it to sound like I want him to make some sort of huge sacrifice to pay more).

Our kids are between the ages of 5-7 and I'm going to uni and currently looking for work, as the youngest has just turned 5. Is any of his other income, aside from ESA, taken into account for his maintenance amount? Or does being on ESA give you a passport to paying £7/week regardless of how much else you have coming in?

Thank you for any clarification!

DUTR

I think you get they standard basic £7 per week, but somebody more qualified will be able to confirm.

HoneyNutLoop

DUTR is correct. Based on the information you have given, you would receive £7 under the 2012 scheme, £5 under the 2003 scheme and nothing under the 1993 scheme. His total benefit income has no bearing on the calculation.

2039475

That's what I expected, thanks for the responses. As a piggyback, do you happen to know how this changes when the custodial parent (me) moves abroad? The children and I are moving to the USA this summer and from what I've ready, there is a child maintenance agreement between the US and UK which states that the US rules govern it. Is this accurate? And if so, how would I go about accounting for the fact that he's on benefits for the purposes of calculating the amount he owes once we're in the US? (He will remain in the UK, if that wasn't clear.)

HappyMJ

He would apply to the court for UK rules to apply if they are British citizens themselves. US rules will still allow him to deduct the costs of contacting the children and the costs of visiting them possibly reducing your entitlement to nothing in any case. The only income that would be taken into account would be the income based ESA. All the other payments he gets is paid for a purpose...i.e a disability or for housing.

Although you say it doesn't spend the care related benefit money on care items he could successfully argue that as he can't get out of the house as often as someone else the internet/TV package is an essential expense that he needs.

2039475

The kids are both dual US/UK citizens, although I'm not sure that would affect things. At the moment, since the guidelines here are pretty clear, we just have an informal arrangement. Would I need to file for a proper agreement through my state once we get to the US to make sure everything's done fairly and accurately (for both sides)? Or would he need t do it here in the UK?

PreludeForTimeFeelers

HoneyNutLoop wrote: »

you would receive £7 under the 2012 scheme, £5 under the 2003 scheme and nothing under the 1993 scheme.

Have they not increased the DFB amount for CS2 cases?

HoneyNutLoop

PreludeForTimeFeelers wrote: »

Have they not increased the DFB amount for CS2 cases?

Not at present.

PreludeForTimeFeelers

Ah, I just assumed that the increase had been across the board. Is there an expected date when the rate will increase?

Lovetoread

2039475 wrote: »

I have full custody of my two children. My ex husband is on income-based ESA and also receives mid-rate care DLA, high rate mobility DLA, severe disability premium, and LHA (housing benefit). Altogether, he receives just under £1600/month. Is this taken into consideration at all when calculating maintenance, or does he only have to pay £7/week even though he gets such a large amount coming in? He doesn't spend any of it on care-related things, just catalogues and internet/TV packages. (I don't want it to sound like I want him to make some sort of huge sacrifice to pay more).

Our kids are between the ages of 5-7 and I'm going to uni and currently looking for work, as the youngest has just turned 5. Is any of his other income, aside from ESA, taken into account for his maintenance amount? Or does being on ESA give you a passport to paying £7/week regardless of how much else you have coming in?

Thank you for any clarification!

Sorry, did I just read this correctly?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but what I take from this is that you want to take money away from someone that from what you write is severely disabled.

Yes, you get a fair amount of money when you're on DLA, and it's not means tested because disabled people NEED this money to put towards every day needs that 'normal', 'healthy' people take for granted. This money will go towards things like:

- if you need a very high calorie diet, you need to buy lots more, expensive food to attempt to put weight on
- having heating on in your home constantly because if you catch a cold it could quite easily be the death of you. Heating isn't cheap
- being on dialysis for several hours a day. Electric isn't cheap
- using your car to go to the shops because you're too ill, or unable to walk. Petrol isn't cheap
- driving to several hospital appointments a year. If you go to a specialist hospital that could be up to 100 miles away
- taking days off work, ie losing a days pay to attend these hospital appointments. Or taking days off because you're just too ill to face work (due to your disability, not for an every-day pitiful cold)
- having to buy parking tickets so you're as close to your destination as possible because you're in too much pain to park in the free area and walk to where you're going
- if you're house-bound, one of your only entertainments is the tv, so you're going to want to get sky to make yourself feel that little bit better about your life
- if you need to be on certain medications that need to be in a refrigerated, sterile environment, that means having a separate fridge to keep your meds in, making energy costs even more expensive
- you may have been advised to exercise daily, or as much as your health allows. You can't get treadmills on the NHS!
- you may have an incontinence issue which means washing your clothes and bed sheets several times a day

The list goes on, and on, and on....

Is it not easy being disabled 24/7, 365 days a year. You can't just switch off and think "I'll take a break from all this now". It's extremely lonely too. And to try and fit a job around all of this? Almost impossible. That is why you're quite rightly only being assessed on the LITTLE money your ex gets in return for not being able to work and earn money for himself. Do you know how much money he gets as a substitute for not working, that he has to live off? About £280. Do you still feel like you're more entitled to his disability money than he is???

As you may have guessed I am disabled myself and one of the worst things anyone could say to me is, "but you look so healthy". Don't read a book by it's cover. I understand this is your ex husband but you no longer live with him anymore so you don't know his current situation at home.


That being said, there was one other thing I wanted to mention but don't want to go in to it too much, but how do you cope with migrating your two children to a different country away from their father? He has just as much right to those kids as you do, but choosing to move them to a different continent to their DISABLED father is beyond me.

Bublin1

^^^^ That is all well and good but he should contribute to the children he brought into this world....disabled or not, he has responsibilities. He wasn't so disabled he wasn't able to jump into bed and get jiggy......