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Hi All
I am after some advice please with whats to come. My child now lives abroad in a EU country .
Its been through courts with no maintenance discussed.
Mother has always maintained through courts she relies on no one etc .
No doubt she will now come cap in hand. Issue I have is that if maintenance is enforced , then I wont have any funds to Fly and hotels to spend time with my child per the court order.
Whats likely to happen? Is it just likely I have to pay and miss my chance to spend time with my child ?
Don't get me wrong, if mother was local I would always pay for my son, but I would not have access issues
If anyone can advise of any experience would be greatly appreciated so I can prepare myself as this is hard enough anyway.
Thanks
The Potteries
Hi
Unfortunately yes, that is likely to be the case (you will have to pay regardless of whether you can then afford costs of contact) . You can offset some of the costs associated with contact, however they are not directly deducted from the amount you pay but instead deducted from your annual declared earnings and so reduce your payments by a much smaller amount.
Could you visit less often but for longer in order to reduce flight costs etc, or consider moving more locally abroad?
Its a difficult one with no one size fits all answer...
I would open a case with CMS yourself, that way you can rely on the CMS calculation and you will be able to make some deduction for travel costs. Otherwise, if the mother goes to her local court and gets maintenance, CMS won't override that - it all depends on what the calculation is likely to be in the system where she now resides.
it's difficult as you would have to pay maintenance whether the kids are abroad or not. if your on reasonable terms with your ex, then maybe you can sort out a private arrangement, taking into account travel costs. I had a colleague at work who would book cheap flights to see his kids in Greece for the weekend, every couple of months.
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