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I have 2 children from my first marriage. My wife sadly passed away when the children were young. I get a Widows Pension from where my wife use to work.
Roll on a few years, got remarried and divorced and have 2 children I currently pay for via CMS.
It just feels wrong that the Widow's Pension from my first marriage (from the job my wife worked hard to help support me and and our children) is counted towards the support for my children from the 2nd marriage.
I'm sure i read somewhere that CMS will calculate payment from employment and then separately only take a maximum of £7 per week from the Widows Pension. I'm sure this was in the CMS Handbook but I can't find a copy of this text anywhere.
Has anyone else been in the same situation and did anything change or was the Widows Pension counted fully towards all payments?
Thank you.
hi,
this is info from CMS booklet:
Q: What if a paying parent gets benefits?
A: In most cases, we will know if a paying parent gets one of the
benefits listed on page 23 and 24.
If this is the case, the Flat rate of child maintenance will usually apply
and a fixed weekly amount of £7 will be paid by the paying parent. This
is usually taken direct from the benefit. Only one £7 payment will be
taken each week, no matter how many children are involved in the case.
Weekly amount – Flat rate
The paying parent pays the Flat rate of £7 a week for child
maintenance if:
• their gross weekly income is £100 or less
or
• they, or their partner who they live with, receive any of the following
income-related benefits:
– Income Support
– Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
– Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
– Pension Credit
or
• they receive one of the following benefits:
– Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
– Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
– Category A, B, C or D Retirement Pension
– State Pension
– Incapacity Benefit
– Training allowance (other than work-based training for young
people or, in Scotland, Skillseekers training)
– Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments
– War Disablement Pension
– War Widow’s Pension, War Widower’s Pension, or Surviving Civil
Partner Pension
– Bereavement Allowance
– Maternity Allowance
– Carer’s Allowance
– Severe Disablement Allowance
– Industrial Injuries Benefit
– Widowed Mother’s Allowance
– Widowed Parent’s Allowance
– Widow’s Pension
– A social security benefit paid by a country other than the
United Kingdom.
If the paying parent or their partner are getting any of these benefits,
we normally take the child maintenance direct from the benefit or
Pension Credit.
If the benefit is paid by the Department for Work and Pensions, we
will automatically get information about it. But if you are getting
a benefit paid by someone else – for example, an Armed Forces
Compensation Scheme payment paid by the Service Personnel and
Veterans’ Agency − you will need to tell us about that.
One point to check, are you still supposed to be getting your widows pension once you remarried - that quite often stops, certainly in the case of a couple of widows I know, it will stop if they remarry.
The widowed parents allowance got stopped (which was a tad frustrating in itself for the sake of a 9 month marriage) but the widow's pension continued even when I got remarried.
I submitted statements and P60s when my case was opened so they have had the info but I was sure I saw somewhere they calculated widow's pension separately and took a max of £7 week from that element of it.
Thank you. So that clarifies they should only be taking £7 a week from my pension
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