Child maintenance question.

sld92

Hi.

I just wondered if anyone had any information as I cant find anything online.

Recently I was ordered by the court to drive to meet my daughters father at the same place where he meets his ex wife with their elder daughter. Child maintenance is taking the full amount of his travel costs from my daughters maintenence money, should this not be halved as it's where he is also picking up his other daughter from?

I've had many issues with child maintenence, there was a month he was told not to pay. He told me two days before when I called they confirmed and never made me aware of this via letter. When I spoke to child maintenence they couldnt explain why hes been told to pay what he does and when I spoke with a manager she told me I'm lucky he even pays which shocked me! I've since tried to make contact numerous times but never get a response. I first called them in june 18. He didnt start paying till september, then his money was cut after 6 months then he was told not to pay july 19 then his amount was slashed by nearly half, they said I was in arrears as they didnt take into account his first daughter although my first letter I ever received said it was taking into account another child who lived with him (another child never lived with him I assumed this was his other daughter who he has a payment plan with the mother for). Child maintenance have told me they never took any other child into account though. On the first year he was earning £613 a week and in 13 months I received £2397. I drove for 7 of those months.

Now for this year hes earning £632 a week and in 13 months I'll be receiving £1851.60 and I've began meeting him a third of the way.

I cant seem to grasp how they have come up with these calculations.

Any help would be appreciated. 
Thank you.

Comms69

Ok, it sounds to me like theres actually 3 kids - two his, and one as a 'step' child.

So there is a deduction for the step child and then a split for the two children. 

The cms calculator is quite good at this kind of thing. - just one a very quick basis, i put in some approx details. and it cam up with £2000 a year. But that only having children 1-2 night a week, if it's more than that it would explain the small difference.

sld92

Thank you for replying. 
His girlfriend and child hasn't moved in and child maintenence told me there is no other child on there, so nothing to be deducted from his girlfriends child.

He has our daughter every other weekend and a week at Easter and a week at xmas. Hes in the second category of 52-? Nights a year.

Thank you

Comms69

So there are 3 kids? 

Obviously like any massive govt dept, CMS makes mistakes, but I think that is the likely outcome. 

Yes that is what i put 52-103 nights a year (1-2 a week). 

As for the travelling part, well that is something that the court could've addressed at the time. You have an awkward position, you must travel - failure to do so would be in breach of a court order (something you defo dont want, ultimately; though way down the line; that could mean prison time). 

If i understand it correctly both you and ex wife, travel to the same location at the same time? And as such both incur travel costs. Is this location half way between the homes? If so, would the alternative simply mean more travel expenses are dudcted from what he pays?

sld92

There is only 2 children being taken into account as his girlfriend and her child do not live with him. 
Child maintenence dont do it on how far the mother travels they calculate it on how far the father has to travel. So his ex actually travels about 90 miles I travel 30 miles and he travels 85 miles we meet there at the same time. Even though he would still have to drive to the meeting point, him and his ex have a private payment plan so the whole £700 travel expenses get taken off my daughters payments. 
When I question any sort of payments to child maintenence they dont seem to be able to break it down and are confused themselves about my payments so I feel a bit stuck at the moment.

Comms69

sld92 said:

There is only 2 children being taken into account as his girlfriend and her child do not live with him. 
Child maintenence dont do it on how far the mother travels they calculate it on how far the father has to travel. So his ex actually travels about 90 miles I travel 30 miles and he travels 85 miles we meet there at the same time. Even though he would still have to drive to the meeting point, him and his ex have a private payment plan so the whole £700 travel expenses get taken off my daughters payments. 
When I question any sort of payments to child maintenence they dont seem to be able to break it down and are confused themselves about my payments so I feel a bit stuck at the moment.

No i understand, i just mean theres 3 kids in total, even though one is currently disregarded for the purposes of the calculation. 

You're right child maintenance do take the NRP travel expenses into consideration, but not the PWC. I think the CMS is wrong to take the full claim from you, and that might be worth an appeal. Even if there is a private arrangement, they should attribute the minimum amount to that and that includes any travel.

That aside, can you not also do a private arrangement? If he's doing voluntary payments for one child, it seems he might for both?

sld92

He wanted to pay £100 a month with me driving half way to begin with then to £150 a month but wouldnt budge. Although I'm not his exes biggest fan due to how she used to treat her child, towards the end of our relationship I saw him manipulate his ex wife with money. She likes to have a break away from her child so he could use that against her and if she asked for more money or threaten her with csa he would say he would have her for minimum time and drop her back at 8am on the sunday as CMS calculate for nights (she lived about 30 miles away from him at the time) she moved to her mums away from him after I moved back to my hometown, she told me I gave her the courage she needed to do it as she had always wanted to move home too. And for months he didnt see his other daughter then it was once a month now he has just had her for 3 weeks and going back to every other weekend.
I didnt want to be manipulated like that, although he knew he couldnt manipulate me like that as I enjoy spending time with my daughter I thought it would just be easier to go through CMS than argue about it.

Comms69

sld92 said:

He wanted to pay £100 a month with me driving half way to begin with then to £150 a month but wouldnt budge. Although I'm not his exes biggest fan due to how she used to treat her child, towards the end of our relationship I saw him manipulate his ex wife with money. She likes to have a break away from her child so he could use that against her and if she asked for more money or threaten her with csa he would say he would have her for minimum time and drop her back at 8am on the sunday as CMS calculate for nights (she lived about 30 miles away from him at the time) she moved to her mums away from him after I moved back to my hometown, she told me I gave her the courage she needed to do it as she had always wanted to move home too. And for months he didnt see his other daughter then it was once a month now he has just had her for 3 weeks and going back to every other weekend.
I didnt want to be manipulated like that, although he knew he couldnt manipulate me like that as I enjoy spending time with my daughter I thought it would just be easier to go through CMS than argue about it.

Fair dos, sometimes context is everything. - sounds like a piece of work

sld92

Comms69 said:

sld92 said:

He wanted to pay £100 a month with me driving half way to begin with then to £150 a month but wouldnt budge. Although I'm not his exes biggest fan due to how she used to treat her child, towards the end of our relationship I saw him manipulate his ex wife with money. She likes to have a break away from her child so he could use that against her and if she asked for more money or threaten her with csa he would say he would have her for minimum time and drop her back at 8am on the sunday as CMS calculate for nights (she lived about 30 miles away from him at the time) she moved to her mums away from him after I moved back to my hometown, she told me I gave her the courage she needed to do it as she had always wanted to move home too. And for months he didnt see his other daughter then it was once a month now he has just had her for 3 weeks and going back to every other weekend.
I didnt want to be manipulated like that, although he knew he couldnt manipulate me like that as I enjoy spending time with my daughter I thought it would just be easier to go through CMS than argue about it.

Fair dos, sometimes context is everything. - sounds like a piece of work

Thank you for your help