Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Hi All,
Looking for some advice around my current predicament. I have two beautiful children, who for the last 3 years have been staying with me 3 nights a week, every week (give or take a week off I have here and a week I have them in full during holidays etc). Up until now it has worked kind of OK, but recent events have changed my situation.
I am currently paying £750 per month in child support, but on top contribute towards school equipment, trips and buy school clothes and general clothes for when they stay with me.
Due to the COVID situation and schools been shut, have gone from having my kids 3 nights a week each, to my son 5/6 nights a week and my daughter 3 nights a week, as I am lucky that me and my partner work from home, where as my ex and her partner are a teacher and copper respectively, so my 11 year old son has somebody with him all day when he is homeschooling.
In addition to the above, I am in the process of changing jobs, which (for the next month) will see me on a significantly reduced wage (almost 40% less) whilst I am on gardening leave, then a reduction of around £15k per annum in my guaranteed wage moving forward.
I suppose my question is two fold, firstly as I am not having my son way more than 50% of the time, does this mean I am still required to pay child support for him, and secondly, am I in my right to have the amount I am paying assessed due to my change in circumstance?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi,
are you paying for your kids through Child Maintenance service? if so, then you should report your job changes to them ASAP. with spending nights with kids, they usually accept changes if the arrangements will be for at least 12 weeks/permanent.
if you have private arrangement, you can use the CMS calculator to work out what to pay: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance
if you don't consider kids to be living with you full-time ( as primary carer) , then you would have to carry on paying maintenance.
£750 seems a high amount, although of course linked to your income. But £750 for 2 children would indicate a salary of circa 60k+ and that is with assumed reductions for having your children 3 days a week, so therefore indicates a much higher salary than that. There maybe some back assessment however.
My point isn't to know your salary, but to wonder if you are doing a voluntary arrangement, you are paying far too much, and as Bill says, use the calculator to find out what you would be paying under CMS.
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.