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Hi
My financial position has greatly deteriorated since my divorce settlement five years ago . So far I have continued to make my agreed monthly contribution on time and the right amount and am ready to continue doing this although I am eroding my capital as my income earnings are well below my outgoings of which 75% are made up of my maintenance payments and sports and medical bills for my two children(14 and 15 years old).
My ex wife had almost zero earnings five years ago but today is a high income earner but despite this is insisting that I must increase my contributions and is threatening to take me to court.
I would have thought that it is reasonable that given our changed financial situations that any such application by her would be rejected on the grounds that she is in a much better position to be able to make up any shortfall .
Please advise, thankyou
Hi numzaan 🙂
If you google the CSA calculator you can answer the questions about your income and you will get an amount that you should be paying. Also if you go to the Finance section on here there is a sticky called "How does the CSA calculate payments" and it's worth having a look at as there is information about reductions that might apply to you.
Unfortunately your ex wife's income has no bearing on how much you pay. Rather than waiting for her to take action you might be better working out how much you should be paying according to the CSA guidelines and then discussing it with her.
Hi Numzaan.
Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant.
If your child maintenance arrangement was set via a Consent Order, you are legally liable to pay the amount the court has endorsed.
It is possible to change the terms of your Consent Order and to do this you will need to get legal advice. This most commonly results in going back to court to set out the application on a standard form. The court will then consider any changes. If you would like to pursue changing your Consent Order, Community Legal Advice is a Government funded confidential legal service. There may be some information on their website that will be helpful to you, at: http://www.direct.gov/legaladvice. Alternatively, you could speak to the solicitor that dealt with the initial proceedings.
Any Consent Orders that were endorsed after March 2003 are not legally subject to change unless they have been in place for at least 12 months. After 12 months, either you or your ex-wife can apply to the Child Support Agency (CSA) and the Consent Order will no longer be valid.
If you would like an idea how much child maintenance the CSA could work out, you can use our online calculator. This is on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator.
If you feel that you can reach an agreement with your ex-wife, then a family-based arrangement might be an option for you, in the short-term and the long-term too. Family-based arrangements give you the flexibility to agree between you what counts as child maintenance, such as paying for sports activities and medical bills. This type of arrangement can also be changed as your children get older or your circumstances change.
For more information about family-based arrangements and access to useful tools and forms online you can visit http://www.cmoptions.org, or if you would prefer a confidential chat you could call the Child Maintenance Options team on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).
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