Petition Regarding Child maintenance

louised

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone is willing to sign my petition re child maintenance assessment. The system needs reviewing, it makes a mockery of single parent Mums and Dads trying to make ends meet. I have 3 children, my ex left me for another women 2.5 years ago. He earns £27000 with performance related pay on top of this, and only has to give me £33 per child per week. His new wife to be, works full time, they have no other children. I am a Nurse, I work 31 hours a week and earn around £10,000 a year and some benefits, every penny I get is spent on my children and I do not begrudge it. There are 1000s of others in similar situations, lets see if we can make change happen.

You will find it in the campaigns corner here is the link

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5644725

Angry_Bear

Hmm, he already gives you what's got to be close to 1/4 of his yearly take-home pay. He still has to house, clothe and feed himself.

His new wife-to-be, and what she earns is irrelevant.

I'm not sure I support you on this.

I don't know what you get in benefits, but it looks like you probably have (significantly) more take-home cash than he does per year (the extra being to look after your children). Given that he clearly has a better paid job, and probably works more hours (I'd expect £27k to be a full time 37hr week), then I'm not sure why you think he should have to give you more.

ETA: Sorry, that ^^ sounds like I'm being really harsh. It's not my intention, I just wonder if you've realised that by the time he's paid tax and your child maintenance, then he probably takes home about £18k per year. By the time you've got benefits and child maintenance from him, you might be more like £25k per year (did a quick whip through entitledto, but I'm not really up to date on what benefits you can get). When you look at it that way, it seems a lot more reasonable.

nicechap

I don't wish to be rude but why are you only earning £10k for 31 hours as a nurse? Starting salary for 37.5 hr week is £21.9k before shift allowances or increments for time served (poor choice of words I accept).

Marvel1

nicechap wrote: »

I don't wish to be rude but why are you only earning £10k for 31 hours as a nurse? Starting salary for 37.5 hr week is £21.9k before shift allowances or increments for time served (poor choice of words I accept).

If I worked out right, it's about £6.20 an hour, below minimum wage, something is not right.

elsien

I'd also like to throw in that I've never understood why child maintenance isn't counted as income for the purposes of benefits, tax credits etc. Never understood the logic behind that one.

Sambella

Child Maintenance was once counted as income and benefits reduced accordingly.

The problem was some single parents were having missed payments or payments suddenly stopped and this caused a lot of hardship and took time and effort to get benefits reinstated.

Now it has swung the other way but some still ain't happy.

I certainly do not begrudge them it but they must accept that there has to be limits and it is not for them to decide what the NRP should pay. it can never satisfy everyone.

Oakdene

£429 a month extra income isnt to be sniffed at in my opinion...

Have you mistyped your salary?

HANA_KING

Hi.. Is there a possibility to require child maintenance from my ex british husband for our british / mexican daughter living in acapulco, mexico?... I already asked the british embassy in mexico and the british consulate in acapulco, but nothing happened. I left england since 8 years ago because of domestic violence and finnancial abuse.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

TBagpuss

HANA_KING wrote: »

Hi.. Is there a possibility to require child maintenance from my ex british husband for our british / mexican daughter living in acapulco, mexico?... I already asked the british embassy in mexico and the british consulate in acapulco, but nothing happened. I left england since 8 years ago because of domestic violence and finnancial abuse.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

You could make an application to a court in the UK, under schedule 1 of the children act. You would need to explain to the court why you felt that the English, rather than Mexican, court should deal with the matter, and the case would only go ahead if the court decided it was appropriate for the UK courts to have jurisdiction. It is more usual for the court in the country where the child lives to have jurisdiction.

If a court in Mexico made an order for him to pay child support, you could then apply for that order to be enforced in the UK. You would need to talk to a lawyer in Mexico about whether you would be likely to get an order of that kind.

You can't apply through the Child Maintenance Service as your daughter doesn't live in the UK.