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,
I'm looking for some help if anyone can help. Just before Christmas I found out my wife had been seeing another man. We have therefore split and I currently see my son 2-3 nights per week after 2 months of arguing over her only allowing me limited access.
We are trying to sort out Maintenence payments and she is saying she want £40 per week. I have 2 questions really...
1. She is wanted payment for the 14 weeks since she left the home. At the start of this she was still saying she needed to 'sort her head out' and decide if she wanted to try and save the marriage. I only really found out weeks later she didn't want this when divorce papers arrived. In this time I had to go and buy him new clothes etc as she had taken the majority of his things. Do I need to pay the historic payments?
2. The £41 per week is based on the government calculator. But I have every intention of still buying my son clothes and shoes etc or whatever he needs. So should I pay the full amount or offer less?
She has said to me that she needs the historic money so that she can set her new house up which isn't really what it is for!
If anyone can help if appreciate it
Thanks
Hi there
You would only have to pay if she had opened a claim with the CMS. As you have a family based arrangement there is no obligation for you to pay the extra 14 weeks.
Once you have reached an arrangement of the amount you should pay, I doubt she would accept that being reduced when you buy him clothes etc. If you were paying through the CMS they wouldn't take it into account, they consider that anything you pay for above the calculated amount is discretionary.
Maintenance payments are to help the resident parent provide a home for the child, a roof over their heads , food in the cupboards and paying the bills, as well as for providing clothes and personal effects for the child.
Thanks for that. I have no issues in paying the £41 per week I just wanted to check.
Good to know about the back payments as no case has been raised.
Hi Andyc2662
Thank you for your post. I would first like to reinforce the information that Mojo has provided in your thread.
Firstly, as Mojo has stated, child maintenance is a contribution towards the cost of bringing up a child and this includes not only such items as food and clothing but also it is a contribution towards the home that the child lives in and the associated costs of running that home.
You may only be liable to pay backdated child maintenance if you had a legal agreement in place, such as via the courts or the Child Maintenance Service. With regards to using the Child Maintenance Service, your responsibility to pay as the paying parent with the statutory service would begin from around the point when the Child Maintenance Service contacts you. This means that receiving parents cannot ask the statutory services to collect child maintenance from before this date. You will also be liable to pay what the Child Maintenance Service assess. It will be your decision if you wished to make additional contributions on top of your payments.
Child maintenance can be arranged privately via what we call a family-based arrangement. Even though this type of agreement is not legally-binding, it is often the most flexible way of putting child maintenance in place as parents can decide exactly what the terms of their agreement will be.
If you are unable to set up a family-based arrangement, you can make an application to the Child Maintenance Service. This is the Government's new statutory service and any child maintenance that is managed by them is legally-binding and enforceable.
The Child Maintenance Service will work out child maintenance and then either, leave it to you and your wife to arrange payments between yourselves or where applicable, they can collect payments from you and then forward them on to your wife.
An alternative to statutory child maintenance is to set up child maintenance via the courts in the form of a Consent Order or Minute of Agreement.
To discuss child maintenance in an impartial and confidential manner, you may wish to contact Child Maintenance Options directly. You can find their contact details on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
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.