We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Child maintenance and informal overtime

If I earn £30,000 per year, I expect to pay child maintenance on that, that's totally fine. 

I have the option to do unscheduled overtime at work as and when it becomes available which, depending on projects and business needs, may be every month, may not be for months at a time. 

My question is, if I do 30 hours of overtime this year, it will inflate my income and thus inflate my child maintenance payments when the CMS carries out their annual recalculation but what happens if I don't have the opportunity to do 30 hours of overtime next year? My child maintenance payments will end up being calculated on an income I'm not actually earning. I don't want to get to a point where every hour overtime I do each year has to be met or exceeded next year for me to keep my head above water or I'll end up paying maintenance on money I'm not actually earning. Can you tell me how the CMS handles this? I'm happy to pay maintenance based on what I've earned but I don't want to have to pay it based on incorrect figures. 

Comments

  • saajan_12
    saajan_12 Posts: 5,297 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Do you have annual reviews of the amount? Surely if you have low overtime one year then the following year's CB estimate will be lower, even if you then have higher overtime, so after the first year, it all comes out in the wash. For example: 

    Year 1 - high overtime
    Year 2 - low overtime; high CB (based on year 1)
    Year 3 - low overtime; low CB (based on year 2)
    Year 4 - high overtime; low CB (based on year 3)
    Year 5 - low overtime; high CB (based on year 4)
    Year 6 - high overtime; low CB (based on year 5)
    Year 7 - high overtime; high CB (based on year 6)
    Year 8.......

    So you're overpaying in years 2 and 5 but underpaying in years 4 and 6. So  if you can save the underpayment in the low CB years, that should cushion the high CB years. 
  • MrMCalavera1
    MrMCalavera1 Posts: 6 Forumite
    Third Anniversary First Post
    edited 23 July at 5:56PM
    If I work 50 hours overtime in year one, they're going to assume I will work 50 hours overtime in year two and bill me accordingly but that means if I work no overtime in year two I'm significantly worse off because CMS will charge me as if I did do overtime. It's almost not worth doing overtime because unless I work 50 hours in year two onwards I'll be financially worse off
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 23,154 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    If I work 50 hours overtime in year one, they're going to assume I will work 50 hours overtime in year two and bill me accordingly but that means if I work no overtime in year two I'm significantly worse off because CMS will charge me as if I did do overtime. It's almost not worth doing overtime because unless I work 50 hours in year two onwards I'll be financially worse off

    There are extra things that need to be reported about the paying parent. Either parent can tell the Child Maintenance Service if the paying parent:

    • misses a payment when using Direct Pay
    • makes any voluntary payments on top of existing payments
    • has an income change of 25% or more, or no longer has an income
    • is spending more or less money in order to see the child, for example on transport costs

  • 94JDH
    94JDH Posts: 149 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    sheramber said:
    If I work 50 hours overtime in year one, they're going to assume I will work 50 hours overtime in year two and bill me accordingly but that means if I work no overtime in year two I'm significantly worse off because CMS will charge me as if I did do overtime. It's almost not worth doing overtime because unless I work 50 hours in year two onwards I'll be financially worse off

    There are extra things that need to be reported about the paying parent. Either parent can tell the Child Maintenance Service if the paying parent:

    • misses a payment when using Direct Pay
    • makes any voluntary payments on top of existing payments
    • has an income change of 25% or more, or no longer has an income
    • is spending more or less money in order to see the child, for example on transport costs

    its reviewed annually on your P60 so there is no escaping it but you will only pay for the hours worked even though its a year in arrears.
    PV total 19.8 kW system:
    23 x 420W East/West split over two flat roof areas at 10 degrees inclination.
    13 x 390W South spit over two flat roof areas at 5 to 20 degrees inclination.
    6 x 390W south wall mounted at 90 degrees inclination.
    7 x 390W West wall mounted at 90 degrees inclination.
    2 x 5 kW hybrid inverters
    4 x 9.5 kWh batteries (38 kWh total)
  • SGMR17
    SGMR17 Posts: 1 Newbie
    First Post
    I'm in a very similar situation, I did a fair bit of un-planned/non guaranteed overtime last tax year, and CMS think that because I earned X last year that's exactly what I will earn this year, which of course isn't true. the 25% rule is absolutely shambolic, I can be earning 24.9% less or on the flip side earn 24.9% more( I'm assuming) and they wont look at it. It really needs to change because 25% is a massive amount, looking through some of the other posts and forum threads, a lot of people feel the same, they don't want to earn more money as if you work Overtime that's indirectly benefitting your ex partner, and I'm not trying to get out of paying whatsoever, I want it to be fair, it should be based on your basic salary, not extra un planned overtime. 
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.5K Life & Family
  • 258.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.