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Good afternoon
After many years of shared parenting (Court order giving equal custody week and week about) my son (15) has gone off to live with his Mother.
She has written to me to say she needs money to support my son. She came up with a figure and said that she had estimates to support the figure that she arrived at and that she would be happy for me to view these before I made a decision. She then gave me 14 days to respond failing this she would place the matter into the hands of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).
I replied within her timescale stating that I was more than happy to contribute but wishing to see her estimates, as I felt her monetary request was rather high. My letter also covered the fact that she had received all the benefits available for our son since 2006 and I had not received any financial help of this type. As she was asking for weekly payments I also pointed out that she had been paying, since 2006, to support our son for 26 weeks of the year so it was only reasonable that I paid for the 26 weeks a year that I would have been responsible for if he had continued to live we me. Within two days of sending this letter she replied objecting to my queries and not supplying the estimates. She has gone straight to the CMS. I see this as an abuse to the system not intended for when this system was set up by the Government. My question is: Is there any way that I can appeal this action and force her to carry out a negotiation in a reasonable manner.
Many thanks
Hi there
I'm afraid not, if your son is now living with her full time then she is entitled to make a claim, they will not take into account anything that went on previously.
If your son will be staying overnight with you then the amount you pay will be reduced. This works out at a 1/7th reduction of the weekly amount for each night a child stays with the non resident parent.
You can use the CMS calculator to check how much you might expect to pay and there is a sticky at the top of the child maintenance section called "How does the CSA calculate payments" that you might find helpful.
Here's a link to the calculator
www.gov.uk/calculate-your-child-maintenance
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