[Solved] Divorce

Hello Walshy1

Thank you for your recent post. I am William, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I am sorry to hear that you are separating from your wife. I will provide you with some information that might help.

Child maintenance is regular reliable support that helps towards your child's everyday living costs. We always suggest that parents try to put their differences aside and think about setting up a family-based arrangement. This kind of arrangement can include whatever you want because it is your agreement, it is private and it is down to whatever suits you both. You could offer a combination of financial assistance or include other kinds of support such as paying towards the mortgage. A family-based arrangement is not legally binding but it gives you and your wife the flexibility to change your agreement as your child gets older.

If you would like an indication of how much child maintenance may be payable based on the guidelines of the Child Support Agency (CSA), you can use our online calculator. This is on our website at www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator. You may wish to use this figure as a starting point when negotiating your family-based arrangement.

If you want some help planning your conversation or talking to your wife about money, we have a discussion guide to help you. We also have a family-based arrangement form that can help put your agreement on a more formal basis. You can find these on our website at www.cmoptions.org.

If you do not think a family-based arrangement will work for you, you and your wife have other options including the CSA. They work out child maintenance using your income, which includes earnings, money from an occupational or personal pension and tax credits. They use the amount of income left after deductions such as Income Tax, National Insurance and any money paid into a personal pension scheme.

The CSA's calculation is based on the idea that you contribute a proportion of your income towards the upkeep of your child's everyday living costs. Once the CSA have calculated a figure based on your circumstances, you are legally required to pay this amount. However, you would not be expected to pay for extras unless you wish to do so.

You mentioned in your post that you hope to get shared access to your children which you believe will reduce your payments. The CSA can reduce the amount of child maintenance that is paid, if your child stays overnight with you on average at least one night a week. The reduction will take in to account the number of times your child stays overnight. The amount of child maintenance payable to your wife is reduced by 1/7 per night up to 175 nights a year.

The CSA have two schemes available. One is called Direct Pay and the other is called Collect and Pay. Direct Pay is where the CSA calculates child maintenance and then lets you and your wife decide how payments will be made. Once they have calculated the maintenance amount, the CSA will not contact you or your wife again unless your circumstances change or if they are told that payments have been missed.

The Collect and Pay service is where the CSA calculates, collects and enforces payments on your behalf, as some people prefer the security and help of third party involvement. If you decide to use the statutory maintenance service, then your responsibility to pay child maintenance will start from around the time you contact the CSA or the CSA contact you.

If you have got any questions about the CSA, or if you would like to set up child maintenance using their service, you can contact them directly. You can find their contact details and information about how they work out child maintenance online at http://www.gov.uk/childmaintenance.

If none of the above options are suitable for you, you can consider a Consent Order, which is an official ruling made by a court. To arrange a Consent Order, you and your wife would need to agree either privately between yourselves, through a solicitor or mediator, how much child maintenance would be paid and how often before going to court. The court can then approve and authorise the Consent Order. This usually happens when parents are going to court for other reasons, such as arranging a divorce or dividing their property or other assets. Arranging a Consent Order can be costly as fees for solicitors, mediators and court costs may apply. Legal Aid will not cover these costs if you are only going to court to obtain a Consent Order for maintenance.

We have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful, it offers help and support to separated families. You can find this at: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.

To find out more about how Child Maintenance Options can help you visit: http://www.cmoptions.org. If you would prefer a friendly and confidential chat, please give the team a call on 0800 988 0988.