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I recently went to court over child arrangement for my seven year old son. Based on the CAFCASS report his time was divided over a two- week schedule of 8 days mum and 6 days dad plus one evening where i feed him but he sleeps at mums.
We both earn salaries whereby we cannot claim child benefit for him. CMS calculation came out at £67 per week. Currently I pay her £54 per week based on an older online calculator I found.
As well as paying the £54 per week I also pay 50 percent of dental fees (high cost private fees), cubs uniform, school trips, birthday parties and half of any other joint costs which adds up as he is very active. I also buy all his clothes for when he is with me as well as school uniform.
I am looking for a definition of what exactly CMS payments are supposed to cover. I want to know if I should reduce my weekly payment (through negotiation) or increase it to £67 and refuse to pay half the other costs. Is it reasonable if I pay the full amount to expect her to supply me with all his clothes and school uniform ?
I know the above sounds a bit nasty but I really do need to know if thats reasonable or not. Many of the documents I read talk about the "resident" parent and with an 8/6.5 split thats almost 50/50 so there is no resident. Th court order states "the child will live with mother and father".
Please help me to understand what is expected and also what is reasonable so I have some assistance when I start to negotiate with her.
Many thanks
Cam
Hi Cam
Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I would like to provide you with some information to help you decide whether or not to review your current child maintenance arrangement.
Child maintenance is a contribution towards the cost of bringing up a child and this includes not only such items as food and clothing, but it is also a contribution towards the home that the child lives in and the associated costs of running that home.
If you and your son’s mum have arranged child maintenance between yourselves, this is known as a family-based arrangement. These types of arrangements are not legally binding and there are no set rules that you have to follow. You and your son’s mum can decide between yourselves how your arrangement should work and what to include. It does not only have to be about money, if you both agree, your arrangement can include the other things that you already provide for your son, such as clothes, trips and dental fees.
If you have a family-based arrangement in place and decide to renegotiate the terms of it, we have some tools on our website that can help with this. Our Talking about money guide and discussion guide can be helpful with planning your conversation, as well as help you consider what you would like to include in your arrangement.
Some families find it helpful to make a written record of their arrangement once they have agreed the terms of it. With our family-based arrangement form, you can record the details of your arrangement and both sign it as a commitment to it. Although the form will not make your arrangement legally binding, feedback we have received from other families is that it makes the arrangement feel a little more formal and therefore more likely to be kept to. You can view all of our tools on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/index.asp.
When child maintenance is arranged by the Child Maintenance Service (this is the Government's statutory maintenance service) you are only legally responsible for the amount worked out by them, and are not obliged to pay for anything extra. However, additional contributions can be made on a voluntary basis if you choose to do so.
Where child maintenance has been agreed via the courts in the form of a Consent Order (also known as Minute of Agreement for parents that live in Scotland) how much and what should be paid for depends on the terms of the document. Therefore you would need to seek legal advice to gain clarification.
For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. The Department for Work and Pensions have a web application ‘sorting out separation’ which 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
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