Hi, looking for thoughts/advice on the below situation…
Split from mother of my daughter (now 8) in 2018, we agreed shared care at the time and I made a maintenance payment as felt it was the right thing to do given our separate situations at the time.
I stopped paying the voluntary payment in September 2020 as relations had soured as mother didn’t get on with my new partner (now wife), still had 50/50 care of my daughter.
November 2020 - purchase a 4 bed house with my partner that suits ourselves, my daughter, her daughter and our soon to be born son.
February 2021 – I had a son with my new partner. My daughter’s mom had a daughter with her new partner.
September 2021 – I sold my car as I did not need it as I WAH and my partner had a car that was sufficient for all our commuting needs.
In October 2021 the mother announced to me that she intended to move away to the hometown of her new partner with their new daughter as she had no family ties in my area and intended to take my daughter with them.
By April 2022 and lots of discussion we agreed that my daughter would stay with me for one further academic year at the school she was at and she would move to be with her mother the following year. I would have care Sunday night through following Friday (term-time) and would be at mother’s Friday night to Sunday evening (term-time) plus school holidays, odd days would swap here and there. We would meet at a half way point for moving daughter between us. 195 nights with me, 170 nights with mother.
August 2022 – mother moves to new town with partner and their daughter.
September 2022 - my daughter starts year 3, living with myself for term-time as per above.
January 2023 – I purchase a new car to facilitate contact exchange as other means not working.
August 2023 – I marry my partner.
August 2023 – daughter “moves” to her mothers to attend a new school for year 4.
August 2023 – mother will not agree to myself having my daughter every weekend.
August 2023 – we agree on a pattern of 2 with me, 1 with mother. On my weekends it would be 3 nights as I would take her to school on Monday morning. Works out at 104 nights p/a so fits the 2-3 nights per week bracket.
August 2023 – we agree to have maintenance payments starting August 2024 (a year of nothing due to past voluntary payments and because I asked for nothing in 22/23)
With that background, my question is on contact costs:
I see my contact costs as being the ownership of my car as I would not have had to purchase it if my daughter’s mother had stayed in the local area.
Thus I am paying, per month, £160 car finance/loan, £14 tax, £26 insurance and ~350miles per month. (plus a £500 MOT/Service last week!).
Would it be determined that this is incidental to maintaining contact and so deductible as a contact cost?
As it stands my CM payment would be ~£82 per week ~£355 per month. Which would leave my family with nothing, given current cost of living and a large mortgage on a 4 bed house that was purchased on basis of me having my daughter here 50% of time….
Taking the car costs as a contact cost (~£46 per week) would reduce this to around £36 per week.
Incidentally, if I did not have the car and was to use public transport it would be £40-£50 in public transport per contact weekend.
So, is the car a reasonable deduction?
Thanks!!
As far as CMS is concerned, the costs of buying and running a car are not allowable costs, only fuel costs are allowed or public transport costs if you used that.
If you have a private arrangement, you can of course negotiate whatever you wish, but if the mother isn't happy with that, she can always open a case with CMS and they'll apply their rules.
Don't forget also, the travelling costs are deducted from your gross income for the calculation, and not from the amount you pay - so take your gross, deduct the travelling costs from this, and then take 12% of the remainder, and reduce a further 28.6% for the 104 nights with you, and you should have the CMS figure.
@actd hi there. I found some of your info very useful. But I do have a question…
You say to deduct the travel costs from your pay, then a further 12%. What is the 12% for?
I’ve always paid privately to my ex, using a calculation from the CMS/gov website. Of course it’s not enough for my ex. And despite me offering to above the calculation, disregarding my £2k per year travel costs and the fact I’m about to have a child with my wife so a dependant in my home, it’s STILL not enough. I’d like to prepare myself for what it truly should be if travel is taken into account. She, or I for that matter can then just approach the CMS for a definitive/official figure
@m17hpk 12% is what you pay of your income. So if your income is 20k per year, you'd pay £2400 in maintenance, if you spend £1k in travel costs, your reduction would only be £120 (ie 12% of £1k, or putting it into the calculation, your income is £20k, less £1k travel, leaves £19k, and then 12% of this means you pay £2,280 per year. I was just making the point that if you spend £1k in travel, you don't get a £1k reduction in maintenance.