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Hi All
Will try and keep it succinct...
I live with long-term partner currently...
We are Not married
One child (10)
Mortgage - Joint names
I work, she is homemaker and has been for last 12 years or so...
About to split up...
I want to buy a second property but need to ideally live at home for a period 1-2 years to settle debts and put together deposit....
I have a debt I need to finance 25K and wanted to add to mortgage, this is causing friction and she might refuse, currently stalling....
I used online child maint and I will have to pay somewhere between 650 - 800 a month.....
So my first question, will I have to pay the mortgage and all the house bills in addition to child maint?
She could technically work given my son is 10 but she has been out of the market for long-time, this might be impractical in short-term..... where does that leave me ?
I assume I do not have to fund anything specifically for her in addition to child maint....?
If I am paying for things like good and luxury items, how is this worked out, whats reasonable ?
Is she entitled to benefits, if so what, and how much, given I might be paying the mortgage and main bills... any ideal on how this is calculated ?
I want to avoid expensive legal preliminaries if I can for the basic questions...
Thanks in advance
TB
Hello tiredbancini
Paying child maintenance would not affect your responsibility to pay your share of any household bills including the mortgage. If you paid anything other than your share this could be taken as maintenance in lieu.
Your partner’s employment status and income do not affect the amount of maintenance you would be required to pay as it is your personal contribution to your child’s upkeep.
Whether your partner would be entitled to any benefits or indeed child maintenance payments relies on proving to any organisation involved that you are living separate lives amongst other things.
As well as your income, maintenance is also calculated based on the amount of care of your child that you have. Overnight care is taken into account, so if you live in the same house, that could be every night of course. Also, if the care of your child is equal, there may be no requirement for you to pay child maintenance at all.
If circumstances arise which do require you to pay child maintenance, there are various ways an arrangement can be set up. One of your options is to set up an agreement between yourselves without the involvement of the Government or legal system. This is called a family-based arrangement. You can find various tools and guides on the Child Maintenance Options website, http://www.cmoptions.org, which aim to help you with this type of arrangement. They include the Discussion guide which can help with negotiations and the Family-based arrangement form which allows your agreement to be recorded.
If this is not possible for you, another option is to use the Child Maintenance Service, the Government’s statutory service. They can either calculate the payments for you and then leave the two of you to decide how and when they are paid or they can manage the whole arrangement for you. These options are called Direct Pay and Collect and Pay respectively. There is a £20 application fee payable with both these options and additional fees with Collect and Pay.
Another option is to set up an arrangement through the courts.
If you would like any further information and to receive a more personalised service, you can contact Child Maintenance Options directly.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a website, ‘Sorting out separation’. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is https://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/
Regards
William
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