[Solved] Maintenance to 2 different women

I would check out the CSA calculator as it can get complex. Also, if you are using the CSA for your most recent baby, the CSA don't recognise money paid by private arrangements to your ex-wife in reducing the maintenance for your baby - I think the simple rule is that if you are using (or being forced to) use the CSA for one, then use them for both.

Hi djp164

Thanks for your post. I’m William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. You have not indication if you have an arrangement in place for maintenance.

If you have a family-based arrangement in place with your ex-wife, you would both decide together how maintenance is calculated. There are no strict rules or formulas that you have to stick to when working out a payment figure. You can include money and other kinds of support, for example you providing clothing or other things that your children may need.

You may find our Child Maintenance Decisions guide for paying parents Information for parents living apart from their child and our Discussions Guide useful. These can help you understand your child maintenance choices and help you plan your conversation with your ex-wife.

We also have a family-based arrangement form, you can complete this with your ex-wife and sign your names to show your commitment to your arrangement. Although this is not a legally enforceable document, it puts the agreement on a more formal basis. These can be downloaded from our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/index.asp.

You have mentioned that you are going through a long battle with your ex-wife over finances and contact. Just to let you know that child maintenance and contact are not linked in law. If you feel that a professional mediator would help you negotiate a family-based arrangement together and help you agree an arrangement for contact, you may wish to use a professional mediator. The following link can provide you with details of organisations in your area that provide a mediation service http://find-legal-advice.justice.gov.uk/.

There have been changes made to how maintenance is calculated under the Governments Statutory Maintenance service. For parents with two or more children who are making a new application would contact the Child Maintenance Service and payments would be calculated on the paying parent’s gross weekly income.

Under the Governments Statutory Maintenance service when a paying parent pays maintenance for more than one child, they will work out the total amount payable for all children involved. This is then divided equally so that the same amount is paid for each child.

If you would like an indication of how much maintenance may be payable, based on how the Child Maintenance Service calculates maintenance. There is a calculator available on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/. Some parents use the figure provided as a starting point to negotiate a family-based arrangement.

The Government plans to introduce costs for using the Child Maintenance Service at some point in the future. There will be three types of costs:

application fee
fees for collecting and paying out child maintenance payments
enforcement charges for paying parents who do not pay

We do not know the exact amount of these costs yet or when they might be introduced as they still need to be approved by Parliament but the Child Maintenance Service will write to everyone with a case to confirm the exact amounts at least a month before they come in.

You can avoid costs by making your own family-based arrangement with your ex-wife. If you try it and it does not work out, you can still apply to the Child Maintenance Services at any stage.

If you already have an arrangement with the Governments Statutory Maintenance service either with the CSA or the Child Maintenance Service, you will need to contact them directly to inform them of any changes to your circumstances. Their contact details can be found on any letter they have sent you, or the can be found on their website at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.

To find out more about all the options available for maintenance and how Child Maintenance Options can help you visit http://www.cmoptions.org or call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday.

Thanks
William

Thanks for your input guys. I have an informal arrangement in place with my ex-wife for my 3 children with her, (which she is now unhappy with) but it looks like I may need to work out something with my new partner soon, if things keep going the same way. I know the maximum for 3 or more children used to be 25% of net income, I just wondered if there was a similar amount under the new arrangements. I believe they are now based on gross salary?

Check out the sticky at he top of this section called "how does the CSA calculate payments" and follow the second link.