Child maintenance reduction when dependents increase - advice please!

abbiewaye

I was hoping for a little advice re child support payments.

We (my partner, specifically) are paying £1000 per month for child maintenance for two children (plus £350 per month spousal maintenance). The two children stay with us 2-3 nights per week and half of all of the holidays. 

My partner and I now have a new baby and my understanding is that, as my partner now has another dependent, the child maintenance payment will go down a little to allow for this. However my partners salary has gone up since the divorce which is when the child maintenance payment amounts were calculated. Using the calculator on the government website, due to this salary increase, the payments are coming out very similar to what we are already paying.

Even though he has another child now, does this mean his payments will not go down? The calculator seems to be quite a generalised crude way of calculating the payment amounts so I’m not sure if this is what we are supposed to rely on.

When child 1 turns 18, I assumed the payments would go down as well but if his salary has gone up, perhaps not!

Advice would be very welcome

tightauldgit

Is this a CMS arrangement or an agreement between your partner and his ex?

if it's a CMS arrangement then you should update your circumstances to reflect the new situation, if it's an agreement between them then nothing will change unless there's something in that agreement to say it will change or they come to a new agreement. 

The calculator reflects what you will actually pay via CMS if you've put the correct info in. CMS is quite a generalised crude way of calculating payment amounts too.  

Twixty3

I’m gonna have to ask if you are using the calculator correctly as it is pretty accurate if you put the correct information in .

For example on maximum weekly income for child Maintenance  which is £3.000 (£156k a year) he would pay £871.28 per month if you input that he has each  child 3 days a week and has one other child at home.  

He is not too far away from 50/50 shared care when you factor in school holidays. 

The reduction for having another child can easily be cancelled out by a pay rise.  

Did you take off pension contributions? 

If the 18 year old remains in full time education CMS will stop on their 20th birthday.  If they get a job, claim benefits or go on an apprentenship CMS stops around 31 August.  The cms for the younger child would lincrease if it stops for the eldest. 

Spousal Maintenance will stop if he or his ex remarry and it can also be varied but not because he now lives with someone, perhaps another child could make a difference. I am not certain.   Is it time limited ? 

abbiewaye

The payments were agreed when the divorce took place via the solicitors. 

It just seems unfair that he is working so hard and has had a pay rise and therefore the payments don’t go down, when his ex doesn’t work very much! But does this seem to be correct to you all?

If the children do a levels then university surely the payments stop at 18 rather than 20?

ZaSa1418

If someone contacts and opens a case with the CMS that will overrule anything agreed in the divorce with regards to child maintenance. 

If the children do A levels and then go onto Uni then the maintenance would finish on the 31st August the year they take the A levels. 

elsien

Out of interest, was a timescale set on the spousal maintenance? Sibling agreed to pay for x years while the ex.  retrained. Could that also be revisited if that’s not the case? 

theoretica

Maintenance - as a percentage - goes down when the number of other children he is responsible for increases.

Maintenance - as an amount for a fixed percentage - goes up when earnings rise.

Two separate things, which may indeed happen to more or less cancel out if both happen.

Twixty3

If the court order is over a year old it can be overridden by going to the CMS directly. 

Spendless

My understanding is that payments don't automatically stop on child's 18th birthday. It depends where they are at the educational stage. Eg at 16 after GCSE's they take an apprenticeship, then I  *think* CM stops then.   Alternatively they go to sixth form/college for a 2 year course, have their 18th birthday sometime during yr2 then CM stops at the end of that academic year if they're going to Uni. If they spend 3 years at sixth form eg they have to re-take a year or change courses then CM is still paid I believe until the child's 20th birthday.  

TBagpuss

Spendless said:

My understanding is that payments don't automatically stop on child's 18th birthday. It depends where they are at the educational stage. Eg at 16 after GCSE's they take an apprenticeship, then I  *think* CM stops then.   Alternatively they go to sixth form/college for a 2 year course, have their 18th birthday sometime during yr2 then CM stops at the end of that academic year if they're going to Uni. If they spend 3 years at sixth form eg they have to re-take a year or change courses then CM is still paid I believe until the child's 20th birthday.  

Yes, it's about whther they are in full time secondary level education, so mostly, A-levels or NVQs etc will count, but if they do an apprenticeship then as they are only in education part time, and working, they no longer qualify for maintenace.

TBagpuss

abbiewaye said:

The payments were agreed when the divorce took place via the solicitors. 

It just seems unfair that he is working so hard and has had a pay rise and therefore the payments don’t go down, when his ex doesn’t work very much! But does this seem to be correct to you all?

If the children do a levels then university surely the payments stop at 18 rather than 20?

Child support is based on a propriation of what he earns, so if he earns more, he pays more. His ex's income isn't taken into account (which probably benefits him as it means that he isn't being asked to pay more because she has a low income)

Assuming his income went up before the baby was born, It sounds as though he was probably underpaying (based on the CMS figures) before your baby was born, as the figures had not been updated to take into account his changed income, and that now the bby is here, that swings things back the other way so the amount is correct again.

It's not unfair that if he is earning more, he gives a bit more support for his children.