Changes to child maintenance?

seashore22

My daughter has been receiving child maintenance from her ex husband.  After 2 years he has just been awarded some unsupervised contact.  It starts at 1 night every 3 weeks and then goes up to 2 nights every other weekend in October.  Until October the amount of contact doesn't change the CM payments, but after October it will.  We were aware of this and would budget accordingly, but stupidly thought we had time until October to adapt.  He was now told her that he has already contacted CMS and, as he will have them for 59 days over the next 12 month, child maintenance will drop by about £100 a month asap.  

I know that this is probably how it goes, but wondered if anyone could tell us if it works like that?  Do they use a calendar year of contacts from date of notification to calculate payments?  The Annual Review was due in October, so we thought that he might wait till then, as it coincided with the increased contact.  That was daft of us.

Thanks.

Comms69

Basically it's done over the course of a year, mainly because that is what salary is generally calculated as (and taxes) and because of sporadic contact agreements. 

seashore22

So a year from reporting, not a year from when the changes actually make a difference?  I know it only amounts to a difference of about £300 over the 3 months, but that's a lot when you're responsible for all expenditures to do with the children.

My daughter was earning a small amount before lockdown too, which would have cushioned the blow, but she lost that job as it was in retail.  Sorry, just ranting.