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HI All,
i have recently broken up with the mother of my 6 Month old twin boys (Bad Times), we have decided to sell the house and go our own way... we have discussed child maintenance and i'm more then happy to pay the going rate which when using the Child maintenance calculator is £540 a month and pay this directly to her every month by means of a standing order or direct debit.... she has now decided i will mess around with the payments which i 100% would not, claiming that she would rather have this deducted straight from my wages which which i believe is the "collect & pay" service - increasing cost due to the CMS charge of £28 a week... just being a bit spiteful i feel.
my question is, can i be forced into having money taken straight from my pay when there is no evidence to support me not making the agreed payments...
on the .gov site when looking at "Direct Pay" there is a statement which says "Either parent can choose Direct Pay without needing the other’s consent, unless there’s evidence that the paying parent is unlikely to pay" this leads me to think unless i miss any payments i'm entitled to pay directly from my bank, not earnings...?
Any info would be great 🙂
Hello Stefan W
As you rightly say, when setting up a maintenance arrangement with the Child Maintenance Service, either parent can request to use the Direct Pay option. The Child Maintenance Service will make a decision about whether or not there is a risk of non-payment so if you have no recorded history of missing payments, there should be no reason why you should not be allowed to use Direct Pay.
There are various ways of setting up a child maintenance arrangement. If you would like information about your options and to receive a more personalised service, you can contact Child Maintenance Options directly, http://www.cmoptions.org.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ‘Sorting out separation’. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation
Regards
William
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