Paying child Maintenance

hi,

if you go through CMS, then yes the fact that you care for a child with disability will affect and lower the maintenance you pay to your ex. but you would have to report this to CMS, so they take it into account. pit falls of CMS are that if you earn bonuses, get pay rise, or do over-time, then you have to pay more maintenance. if they make mistakes with their calculations, they can be a real pain to deal with. it's common for people to be on hold for 1 or 2 hours just to try get through to them on the phone.

special expenses:

Expenses a paying parent can ask us to consider

A paying parent can ask us to take certain expenses into account.

These are called ‘special expenses’ and can reduce the paying parent’s gross income figure at Step 2.

You can apply for a ‘special expenses variation’ for:

• the cost of keeping up regular contact with a child or children you are paying child maintenance for – for example, the cost of fuel to travel between your home and the child’s home (must be at least £10 a week)
• costs connected with supporting a child with a disability or a long-term illness who lives with the paying parent or their partner
• repaying debts from a former relationship – for example, if you are paying a car loan for a car the receiving parent has kept (must be at least £10 a week)
• boarding school fees for a child or children that qualify for child maintenance – but only the everyday living costs or ‘boarding’ part of the fees (must be at least £10 a week)
• making payments on a mortgage, loan or insurance policy for the home that the paying parent and receiving parent used to share – the receiving parent and the child or children must still live in the home and the paying parent must have no legal or ‘equitable’ interest in it (must be at least £10 a week)

A paying parent cannot ask us to take special expenses into account if their gross income is less than £7 a week or if they are getting benefits.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance

@bill337 thank you for your reply

is there a guid line that you know of at how much percentage they take off the monthly amount or is it done by what they deem as fit

@liampec  no am not aware of how much they will deduct.

@liampec they will use the same method as doing a variation for travel costs for example.

They will add up your annual expenses to care for child with disability needs (unsure what the evidence requirements are and what they do and don't take into consideration) and deduct these from your gross income and then rework how much maintenance you have to pay.

A little more info here (gotta scroll down around a third of the way through to special expenses)..

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/children-and-young-people/child-maintenance1/challenging-what-the-cms-says-you-should-pay

Hope this helps, all the best.