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My shared care arrangements are that my 13 year old son stays with me 3 nights a week during school terms, and we share school holidays 50/50 - this would equate to 162.5 nights per year. However last year my son actually stayed with me 194 nights because every time he and his mum fell out, she said if you can't behave you can go and stay with your dad. This happened on numerous occasions. I sent this information to the CSA as this should reduce my maintenance payments (more than 175 nights per year), but they said that because "there is no court order in place" they cannot accept that there has been a change in the level of shared care? Anyone had any experience of this?
I too have recently fallen foul of the 'no court order in place' judgement. I cannot see based on the rules and others experience that I can appeal it through HM Courts & Tribunal, so have effectively given up and am paying it. Sorry I cannot be more positive!
hi,
yes without a court order its very difficult to deal with CMS and shared care overnights.
this is from cms leaflet:
We ask both parents to give us formal, informal or spoken evidence
of any agreement they have reached about shared care. We will also
accept a court order setting out shared care details.
Q: What if we can’t reach agreement about shared care?
A: If both parents agree in principle that they share the care of a child
or children a paying parent must pay child maintenance for, but cannot
agree on the number of nights, then we may make an assumption of
shared care of one night a week. We call this ‘assumed shared care’.
This means we reduce the amount of child maintenance that must be
paid for that child by 1/7th.
This decision will not change unless both parents reach an agreement on
shared care.
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