Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me with my situation?
My ex-wife and I equally share custody of our two children: they stay at her house for seven nights a fortnight; and mine for seven nights a fortnight. She lives with her new partner (who is FT employed as an architect), I am a single parent.
For the past three and a half years, we have had an agreement (not through the CSA) whereby I have paid her £600 per calendar month for child maintenance PLUS we share 50-50 any "extra-curricular costs" eg school lunches, after school clubs etc.
I feel that as we equally share the care for the children, we should equally share the financial burden, so I now want to vary this so that there is no maintenance payment but we just share costs equally. She disagrees, and wants to maintain the agreement. In principle, with equally shared custody such as this, should there be a maintenance payment on either side? I'd like to try and sort this out reasonably without involving the CSA if possible as it sounds like a nightmare.
Apols if this type of query has been answered previously!
Many thanks
Hello PB
With you having a family-based arrangement in place, it would be between you and ex-wife to discuss and negotiate your agreement. Although family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable, parents can decide the terms of their agreement to suit their current circumstances, as there are no strict rules or formulas to follow. It can include money and other kinds of support, for example providing school uniforms.
The Child Maintenance Options website has a useful tools and guides section that you and your ex-wife may find helpful when trying to negotiate your family-based arrangement. These can be found at http://www.cmoptions.org.
Just to make you aware the Child Support Agency (CSA) are no longer taking on new applications, anyone wanting to use their service would need to apply to the new Government’s statutory scheme, the Child Maintenance Service.
The Child Maintenance Service takes shared care into account in different ways depending on the paying parent’s child maintenance rate. Shared care applies if the paying parent provides overnight care for at least 52 nights per year before a liability will be reduced. This is based on the agreement with the receiving parent and or evidence. Shared care is usually determined over a twelve month basis, but shorter periods can be considered in appropriate cases.
The paying parent’s weekly amount of child maintenance is divided between the number of children that qualify for child maintenance.
Shared care is then taken into account, based on the number of nights of shared care for each child. The amount of child maintenance to be paid is then reduced by up to 50 per cent plus a further £7 reduction, depending on the number of nights, as long as this is for more than 175 days or more a year.
The reductions for Basic and Basic plus rates are:
- 1 night per week = amount reduced by 1/7
- 2 nights per week = amount reduced by 2/7
- 3 nights per week = amount reduced by 3/7
- 175 nights or more = amount reduced by half and then minus a further £7.00 per child
A paying parent will usually have to pay at least £7 a week in child maintenance after shared care has been taken into account. However, if their child maintenance is set at Flat rate because the paying parent receives an income-related benefit, allowance or entitlement, then shared care for 52 nights or more a year will reduce child maintenance to £0 for that child. The paying parent also does not have to pay child maintenance for any other qualifying children who live in the same household as that child with shared care.
If child maintenance is set at Flat rate because the paying parent’s income is £100 a week or less, the Child Maintenance Service doesn’t take shared care into account at all. This means the amount of child maintenance won’t change.
This is only based on the number of nights a child stays with the paying parent and assumes that the receiving parent still carries out most of the day-to-day care. If the paying parent can prove that they carry out an equal amount of day-to-day care as well as having equal shared care then the Child Maintenance Service regards neither parent to be the paying parent so their child maintenance would be set as nil – even if one parent receives child benefits or tax credits as the child’s parent. Where there is equal day to day care, and there is no paying parent means that there cannot be a statutory case and the Child maintenance Service would not being able to process the application as there is no identifiable paying parent.
I have included a link for further information on how the Child Maintenance Service works and how they calculate child maintenance that you may find useful, https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.
For more information on all the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website.
The DWP have a sorting out separation website that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: https://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/.
Regards
William
PB,
If your ex wants to raise a case with the CMS, you will effectively half to pay Half the maintanence costs for having shared care, than that of not having them at all. For me this seems very wrong as if you are sharing everything why should you then pay the Mother extra money? There is though a way to safeguard yourself from this. As you have 2 children (and if you ex allows), you could each claim child benefit for one of the the children. The way the CMS work is based on who recieves the Child Benefit. No doubt knowing how biased the CMS is she could still claim for the one child, but then you could claim against her for the other if you was in reciept of the child benefit! Obviously depending on earnings of each of the parents then depends on the calculation, but paying 50% of one child and then recieving 50% for the other would be a lot less than paying 50% for 2!!
I really have the same question but the document ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325219/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance.pdf) that you are directed to by the Child Maintenance Consultant states
Q: What happens if the day-to-day care of a child is equal between a paying parent and a receiving parent?
A: In this situation, the paying parent does not have to pay any child maintenance for that child.
which is different from the calculation they give???
Proving it ...and speaking to a a CMS adviser that actually knows the rules!
If you have a court order that states the child stays overnight with both parents equally that would help.
Hello NH
Shared care is considered to be when the paying parent has at least 52 overnight stays with the child they are paying for. This is taken into account when calculating the amount of maintenance to be paid.
Equal care is different. This is when both parents have exactly the same amount of care of a child including daytime as well as overnight care. The reason why the Child Maintenance Service decide no maintenance is paid in these cases is that maintenance has to be paid to the main carer of a child. If this is proved and agreed by the parents, they cannot ascertain a main carer, therefore they cannot process a case.
Regards
William
I am in this situation and pay an amount each month direct to my ex partner. I also pay for other activities in full (swimming lessons) and buy school shoes, coats, fiitball boots while providing all clothing and care when with me. Have him 50/50 and possibly more over the year.
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If you are paying directly, then it's up to you to agree an amount. You have the option of opening a case with CMS and paying the amount specified by their calculator, in which case that's all that you are due to pay. However, if you have a good agreement with your ex, then the question is whether it's worth upsetting that.
Question for the cms representative, In my case, I have my son 5/2/2/5 term time and the holidays are shared equally as possible and are then alternated yearly for absolute fairness, I attend all medical appointments and also pay for and attend all his contact lenses and attend the appointments, I am ordered by the court to pay for school uniform and I pay for his school educational holidays,
cms have a copy of my court order and have now asked for evidence of shared care as my ex has disputed that our son s care is equally shared they say the decision they make can then be appealed, my question to the cms representative is -who decides if a case should be opened in the first place if it is outside of cms jurisdiction? as it should be subject to regulation(50) (i.e.) a special case
Has anyone here know of any cases or experience with a third party care into the mix when working out the 50/50 arrangement?
I notice the calcs refer to numbers and reducing / diving by sevenths as per days of the week to reflect overnight care.
My partner and I will share 50/50 two full days each; but three other days my parents and ex-partner will be sharing the care 50/50 day and night. If I am paying my ex-partner for the night care as per the rules; should she not be making a contribution for the full day care to my parents who are the ones actually feeding them their breakfast and dinner as opposed to my ex who is simply taking them home and putting them to bed? If it wasn't my parents, then we (or rather I) would be paying additional funds to private care to a nursery in the day as well as maintenance to her for the evening.
Not to hijack from my own topic, but those here may know 🙂
Unless you can come to a family based arrangement (basically, you agree it all between yourselves), the CMS only concern themselves with overnight stays for their calculation.