[Solved] Equal Shared care and payments

Hi There,
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If CMS aren't involved then it would be between you and your ex if and what you pay, If CMS are involved or will be they will work out your payments based on your gross pay, The below is from a legal website explaining reductions for shared care.
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5. Apply any reduction for shared care:

a. 1/7th for 52 -103 night
b. 2/7th for 104 – 155 nights
c. 3/7th for 156 – 174 nights
d. ½ for 175 or more night

Note that if there is truly equal shared care, no child maintenance is payable. (see Regulation 50 if the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012). However, if one parent receives child benefit then there is a rebuttable presumption that that parent is providing care for the child and should receive child maintenance.
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So although I agree if you have 50/50 shared care you shouldn't pay, it looks as though you would still be liable for 50% of what the payment should have been if your ex claims child benifits 😮
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GTTS

Hello MStylianou

Thank you for your post. I'd like to offer relevant information which will reinforce some of the information that got-the-tshirt has included in your thread.

Firstly, if you pay child maintenance privately via what we call a family-based arrangement, there are no strict rules that you and your ex-partner need to stick to. Therefore, both of you have the freedom to decide exactly what the terms of your agreement will be, such as if child maintenance will be paid with you having equal shared care of your daughter. This is because a family-based arrangement is not legally-binding and enforceable and is thus very flexible.

If you pay child maintenance by either the Child Support Agency (CSA) or the Child Maintenance Service, you will need to contact the organisation that is managing your payments to discuss your query (as the CSA work out child maintenance differently to the Child Maintenance Service and the new equal shared care rules apply only to the Child Maintenance Service). However, you can find more information on how both statutory organisations work out child maintenance on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out.

Where child maintenance has been set up via the courts, you will need to consult the terms of your original order to see what you and your ex-partner agreed. To do this, you may wish to seek legal advice.

To discuss child maintenance in an impartial and confidential manner, you may wish to contact Child Maintenance Options directly. Their contact details can be found on their 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

I have never come across such a flawed system. The woman receives the child tax credits hence she gets the child maintenance even though care is shared 50/50. It's been a nightmare for me for 10 years and ongoing. She has a new bloke and child and have had 3 holidays this year on the back of my child maintenance, I have had zero holidays! The child maintenance people are like robots, they have no feelings or compassion but in the same sense their hands are tied by the inflexibility of the system. The new cm system says I have to pay £50 more per month, although again I pay for half of everything else she needs like uniform and trips because she says my child will have to go without if not! Until the government changes these laws us dads don't stand a chance.

Hi There,
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I'm glad that you can see that CMS have thier hands tied, So many dads get frustrated at CMS when they are just doing a job, I guess they have to act like robots as if they didn't they would find it hard to do the job role I would imagine it's a very taxing job to have non resident parents without enough money to live on themselves while they have to pay ex's a portion of thier wages. That said I have always believed that if you have a child you should provide for your child, but maybe there should be something in place where if you earn a very low wage while the resident parent earns a substantial amount more then there is a system to reduce (not cancel out) your payments.
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I guess though as with all systems that would be open to abuse, so they have to have a blanket rule which covers everyone.
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I am about to be going back through the CMS system soon and not really looking forward to the whole process.
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GTTS

Would she really have your child go without if you withheld money for uniform etc - the maintenance you pay is supposed to cover that and you aren't legally obliged to pay anything else.