Child support when you marry - can the ex demand double support?

supersaverkerry

Asking on behalf of a non mse friend

She is getting married in a couple of weeks to a man who has 3 children with his ex wife.

He does pay child support and it is a private arrangement not done through csa, always pays on time etc...

Now the ex wife has called him and asked how much he is going to be increasing his payments now he is marrying my friend because she thinks it should double.

My friend does not live with her husband to be at the moment as she was on a work contract which came with accommodation shortly after they got engaged, so they have never lived together, but this will change after the wedding as she is being transferred locally.

So they will be married and living together and as such the ex wife is saying that payments should be doubled as they will have a double income as husband and wife.

Can anyone tell me whether the income of a husband/wife would be counted if CSA were to handle this as the ex is threatening to involve them unless they double the payment - they have already offered to increase it by £100 per month and my friend is happy to do this, but they feel the ex is being unreasonable expecting it to be doubled.

I have never had any CSA dealings so have no idea, but I told them I thought I knew where we could find out - MSE! lol

Caz3121

supersaverkerry wrote: »

So they will be married and living together and as such the ex wife is saying that payments should be doubled as they will have a double income as husband and wife.

Can anyone tell me whether the income of a husband/wife would be counted if CSA were to handle this as the ex is threatening to involve them unless they double the payment - they have already offered to increase it by £100 per month and my friend is happy to do this, but they feel the ex is being unreasonable expecting it to be doubled.

the ex is in for a shock. There will be no increase in payments because he happens to be married and living with someone else. (assuming he is paying the correct amount)
There are some different scenarios that likely do not apply here
1) If your friend already has children that live with her and will be living with them as a family then his maintenance payments (if through CMS) could decrease as he would get a discount for the child(ren) in the household
2) the (very) old CSA1 used to take into consideration the absent parents outgoings, housing costs etc and, if living with someone their income 'could' be used to offset some of this...eg parent may be assessed as only needing to cover 50% of the costs

He should look at the child maintenance calculators and confirm he is paying the correct amount and agree to change it to that amount or let her open a case with CMS which will give the same answer but she will end up with less as they both have to pay for the CMS service

supersaverkerry

Thank you, I passed this info to my friend and she did the calculation, actually according to the calculator she says they are already paying about £67 per month more than he would be ordered to pay based on his wages, so it seems like they are being super reasonable by saying that when they marry and join finances they will also give an extra £100, so his ex will be getting £167 more each month than she will get if she claims!

Thank you for the advice, I know that already he goes halves on all the things like school uniforms, trips etc... as well as regularly buying them clothes and bits and pieces (which rightly so, they are his children!) but it does sound like his ex is just being greedy.

RAS

They are being very reasonable but expect mother to now push the kids to ask for everything from their father.

If for any reason the household income declines (not just his income but hers) or they have additional responsibilities (children), they may need to renegotiate.

I am a bit worried that the groom had not thought to check this out ages ago.

supersaverkerry

RAS wrote: »

They are being very reasonable but expect mother to now push the kids to ask for everything from their father.

If for any reason the household income declines (not just his income but hers) or they have additional responsibilities (children), they may need to renegotiate.

I am a bit worried that the groom had not thought to check this out ages ago.

I suspect you might be right as it already sounds like he buys them a lot. I get the impression he is a bit of a push over and my friend hadn't really though of it before now as she knew that he already gave her a good amount of money as well as buying them stuff. She told me today that he bought them new beds just before Christmas and pays for them to go to swimming lessons and clubs, so actually he is paying well over what he HAS to pay.

pmduk

If I were him I'd start making a list of the extras (such as beds etc) he pays for just in case the PWC ever does make a CMS claim.