Child maintenance and joint custody

I too got shared custody but got shot in the foot with the type of arrangement I agreed for !

In my case, I agreed for 4days/3nights with me and 3days/4nights with mother "assuming" this was 50/50 but clearly not as CMS only consider "nights" .

please ensure you get equal number of nights whichever pattern you chose for. Unless this is agreed, it becomes very difficult to stop paying CMS.

I wouldn't make any mention of the maintenance in your joint custody application. The courts do not concern themselves over the issue of maintenance, they are focussed solely on the wellbeing of the child, so if they think that you are motivated in any way by trying to stop paying maintenance, they will take a dim view of your application.

I have my children 1 night in the week and every other weekend (Fri, Sat & Sun night) my ex has the children 3 nights in the week and every other weekend. On Wed and Sunday nights we take them to school etc and also to any clubs that they are part of which I pay for. The ex has now applied to CMS and I have stated the nights that I have the children, however the decision has come back that they do not take the every other weekend into consideration. The ex has the children 6 nights in a fortnight and I have them 4. The CMS have totally ignored the fact that I have them every other weekend, and obviously I pay for everything that they have on the weekends that I have them plus any hair appointments, clubs, etc that the ex decides to book on my weekend. So how is it fair that my outgoings for that weekend are not counted? I have also asked my ex to have my children every Monday so that we have equal care, ex will have them Tuesday, Thursday and every other weekend and I will have them Monday, Wednesday and every other weekend, but she won't agree to this as she says that I am just trying to get out of paying the child maintenance, which is not true. I would still have to pay anyway as this is not classed as equal care in the CMS eyes because it is part weeks???. If we have the children the same amount of time, it's equal care, surely? Not to mention, we have joint custody (or supposed to!) I want to see my children more, and I pay for my son to go to football on Monday night and therefore want to take him myself, but she won't allow this. Quite happy for me to pay, though. Who has their children 7 nights one week and the ex has them 7 nights the next week? I've never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. Can anyone shed any light on what I can do?

hi,

if CMS state you have kids 4 nights a month, then sounds like they have included the alternate weekends you have. they like to average out the overnight stays throughout the year. from my example, i have kids fri-mon, every other weekend. so 3 nights, and 1 alternate midweek overnight. so they put me down as having kids 2 nights a week. if ex is refusing to equal care, then you do have option of taking legal route. but a very long-drawn out process.