Child maintenance payments

AlanF

Hi!

My fianc!e has 3 daughters. She divorced in 2003 and the county court order specified that he had to pay £125 per month per child until they were either 17 of finished in tertiary education, whichever was the latter. Oddly there was no provision for inflation.

He has paid this regularly for over ten years, including paying at the £375 rate even after her eldest finished university two years ago. This money has genuinely been spent on her children.

However, he has now stopped paying and says he won't pay any more. This is probably because she is now marrying me, although I doubt that that would have any impact on his responsibility to the court order.

Her inclination is to go back to the court, and ask them to do whatever they can to enforce the court order, and to ask them to consider inflationary increases. However, my question is, as he has effectively (voluntarily) overpaid because her eldest finished university 2 or 3 years ago, would the court take that into consideration, even though it was voluntary on his part at the time?

She is reluctant to start to get into a lot of legal expense, and her ex is a slippery self-employed sort who would doubtless convince the court that he has no money.

Anyone got any experience of this kind of thing?

Thanks

Alan