Child maintenance payments

Mollie_Guinness15

I hope this is the right place to post this question.
Me and my ex wife are divorced and I am full time employed and have always paid the full amount of child maintenance on time.
I'm now in the situation where I may be doing occasional part time work at weekends, does anyone know how you factor this into the child maintenance calculations. It won't be a consistent regualr amount but I want to do the right thing.
Thanks

Comms69

Well child maintenance for a long time has been based upon gross income.


How many children are you paying for?


In essence for every £1 you earn (before tax) you need to pay XXp


XX = varies based upon 1, 2 or 3 children.


Additionally if you have other children in your home, including step children, you can reduce the amount.

TBagpuss

You would include the extra income in the maintenance calculations. If the extra income is coming to be variable then you would work on the average amounts you earn, so work out over 3 or 6 months.

Perhaps you could set aside a portion of the extra each time you work a weekend, until you get a feel for how much of the extra work you are likely to be doing. Depending on your relationship with your ex, you could either give that to them as you go along ("I worked last weekend, so here's an extra £20"). Or just wait until you have done it long enough to get a feel for the average amount you now earn, and redo the CMS calculation at that point

Mollie_Guinness15

It's just one child, and we're probably looking at an additional £20-40 per week, and sometimes nothing. II'll just keep track and see how it goes.

Working_Mum

My ex-husband got a job which involved a bonus system but wasn't guaranteed - he suggested he out the extra into a "car" account for our children - he had an account in his name re: our son and he paid any extra in - it earned a few £'s interest and gave my son a little leg up when it came to buying his first car - I was cool with this as we had a monthly figure my ex-h paid me which was reviewed at the start of each school year.

Maybe that's the kind of thing you could offer - savings account fro Christmas etc for your child??