I think myChild Maintance has been worked out wrongly

MRiley_2

I am a non resident dad.

I have 2 children with my ex.

I now have 2 children with my new partner.

When I started paying child maintenance to my ex, I was told by the gentleman on the telephone that as the child benefit for my children with my new partner was not registered to my address (we don't live together), my child maintenance could not be recalculated.

So I just left it and got on with my new life still paying the amount as advised my CM.

I have recently read that this is not the case. Is this true ?

I am struggling to pay for my children with my ex as well as the two with my new partner.

Should I ask CM to recalculate my CM based on this and will they back date as I've been paying for about 7 years without CM taking into consideration the upkeep I contribute to with my new partner.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

HoneyNutLoop

You can’t have been paying through CMS for 7 years. They only opened in December 2012, and at the beginning, only applications for 1 child were accepted. If my memory serves correctly, they only started taking applications for 2 children around June or July 2013. So either your case began with the CSA 7 years ago, and that was subsequently closed and a new case opened later on with CMS, or you’ve been paying for max 5.5 years.

I raise this point because the rules were different between the CSA and CMS in a particularly relevant way to your query. If your conversation with the guy on the phone was with the CSA 7 years ago, then the answer you got was spot on. They cannot be taken into account as relevant other children, as you don’t share a household. There was also no alternative child role that would have allowed the CSA to take them into account, unless your new partner also put in an application for maintenance.

If the call with the guy was with CMS at a later date, then the response you were given may still also be spot on. Were you paying child maintenance at the time to your new partner via a private arrangement?