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Hi
I have three daughters the oldest is in school doing her a levels this year and I'm in receipt of child tax and child benefit she hasn't had contact with her mum (ex wife) since April 2013 to present. She lives with me 7 days per week.
My other two daughters live with mum and I see them 2 nights per week.
I take them all on holidays abroad and ok also additional. 14 days and weekend breaks.
I purchased the family home. I have a clean break order divorce settlement which has been paid in full.
Does my ex wife have a right to claim maintenance from me? Of which she is doing, she hasn't informed the csa about her cohabitation or that the oldest daughter exists and I provide for her fully. She is higher income than me and has the benefit of her new partners income of which is probably the same or higher than her. Probably 30k her and the same for him.
I earn 24k can I claim maintenance against her.
Child one 7 days
Child two 2 days plus
Child three 2 days plus
Afterfore 11 days I see the children and provide, out of 21 days total.
I have been told I can appeal her claim and claim against her and been told to write this through the appeal procedure.
What are the factors taken in consideration and is there anything else I need to express or prove e.g. Documents.
I want two know what I have have to pay and what if I can claim against her and to what value.
Hi there
Yes she does and her partners income wouldnt be taken I to account when the CSA(now called CMS) do their calculations.
You can and should have been claiming maintenance from her since your daughter started living with you, but they won't back date it I'm afraid. I suggest you open a claim asap. It will be calculated on a percentage of her gross income, which for one child is 12%.
She is entitled to 16% of your gross income for the two children that live with her, with a reduction made for each overnight stays they spend with you. U are also entitled to a reduction for the amount you may pay into a pension. Here's a link to the government guidelines that go into more detail
All the best
Hello Peter007
To reiterate what Mojo has confirmed, all three of your daughter’s are entitled to child maintenance from the parent living apart from them.
In order to have your current arrangement amended to include your daughter who lives with you, you will need to contact the service handling your case.
With regards to arranging to receive child maintenance for your daughter, you may wish to consider making an application to the Child Maintenance Service. They are the Government’s new statutory maintenance service and can either calculate your child maintenance, then leave you and your daughters’ mum to arrange payments between yourselves (known as Direct Pay), or they can collect payments and pass them on to you (known as Collect and Pay).
As Mojo mentioned, if you decide to ask the Child Maintenance Service to arrange your child maintenance for you in the future, it will not be backdated. Your daughters’ mum’s responsibility to pay would start from around the point she is contacted by them, not from when you first make your application.
An alternative is to reach a family-based arrangement with your daughters’ mum, which is a flexible arrangement that you set up and manage between yourselves. You would both agree who should provide what for your daughters, without any involvement from the Government or legal system. Whilst this is not a legally binding way of arranging maintenance, working together to set up and maintain a family-based arrangement is generally better for a child, as it shows that both mum and dad are putting aside any differences to focus on making arrangements for them.
There is a range of tools and guides on the Child Maintenance Options website at http://www.cmoptions.org that can help with reaching and maintaining an effective family-based arrangement. One of these is the online calculator, which can give you an approximate amount of maintenance that would be expected along Government guidelines.
Another alternative is to arrange maintenance using the legal system. This is known as a Consent Order in England and Wales or a Minute of Agreement in Scotland.
For more information on all the different ways to set up child maintenance, including putting in place a statutory arrangement and the fees involved with this, or for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website.
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
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