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Hi. If I get custody of my two year old daughter, will I have to make maintenance payments to the mother ? She and I have never co-habited. She was just a casual aquaintance for 'one night stands' and has had multiple sexual partners for years.
Hi AndyO 🙂
If you have custody of your child then you wouldnt be liable to pay maintenance, the mother as the non resident parent would be liable to pay you.
You would also be entitled to Child Benefit and Child tax credits and if you work you would be entitled to Working Families tax credits.
Hi Andy,
The maintenance you are asking about is spousal maintenance, which is determined by both the recipient's "need" for financial support, and the payer's ability to pay. Given that you and your ex were never married, then she can't claim maintenance for herself.
If you become the resident parent of your daughter, then she has no/few limitations upon her regarding being able to work - so therefore should be be able to financially support herself.
Maeve
Ah I misread...Thanks for clarifying Maeve 🙂
I see you have a legal background, perhaps you could introduce yourself on the Welcome section and tell us a little more about yourself!
Dear Andy O
I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. Thank you for your post. If you receive custody of your daughter and became her main day to day carer you would be entitled to receive maintenance from your daughter's mother.
If you do get custody of your daughter and you want to claim maintenance, many parents choose to sort out child maintenance between themselves. It is the quickest and easiest way of arranging child maintenance, and we call it a family-based arrangement. These arrangements are made without involving the Child Support Agency (CSA) or needing to disclose personal information to a third party.
A family-based arrangement enables parents to decide together who will provide what for your daughter. There are no strict rules or formulas that you have to stick to when calculating your payments. Family-based arrangements are not legally binding, however, they can be quick, easy and free to set up.
Family-based arrangements let your daughter benefit from having an ongoing relationship with you and her mother. To help you put a family-based arrangement in place, we have tools, guides and an online calculator available on our website at www.cmoptions.org.
If you feel a family-based arrangement will not work for you, you still have other options including a statutory child maintenance arrangement with the CSA. The CSA have two schemes available Direct Pay and Collect and Pay. Direct Pay is where the CSA calculates child maintenance and then leaves you and your daughter's mother to agree together how your payments will be made. Once they have calculated the maintenance amount, the CSA will not contact you or your daughter's mother again unless circumstances change or if they are told that your daughter's mother has missed or fallen behind with her payments. Collect and Pay is where they calculate, collect and enforce payments on your behalf. If an application is made with the CSA, your daughter's mother responsibility to pay will start from around the time the CSA contacts her.
There is also an option for setting up maintenance through the courts that you may wish to consider, which is known as a Consent Order. This normally when parent got to court when divorcing or dividing assets. Legal fees will apply when going for this option, as solicitors and courts will apply.
If you prefer a confidential chat, please feel free to call us on our free phone number 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday.
I hope this helps.
William
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