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A little bit of advice please.
I have a 16 year old daughter.
Her mother and myself divorced about 5 years ago and we decided to split the care of our daughter about 50/50 and we agreed to myself paying a set monthly amount of maintenance to her.
I would still pick up the majority of my daughters costs even though we had a 50/50 arrangement (school dinners, transport etc)
My daughter started spending more nights with myself towards the middle of 2017 with the approval of her mother, however I continued to contribute the same amount to her financially.
In December 2017 my daughter moved in with me and spent 100% of her nights with me. I then ceased payments to her mother and did not claim or request any money from her.
In August my daughter and her mother rekindled their relationship (which I am pleased about and encourage) and my daughter has again started spending some nights at her mothers.
As our daughter is 16 years old, her mother and I have agreed that she can be allowed to choose how many nights she spends with each parent. At her age this is the easiest arrangement with my daughter also enjoying spending occasional nights with friends.
However my ex-wife is now requesting Child Maintenance payments from me again and has approached the CMS and opened a case as I refused.
I believe that we have a shared arrangement as I still pay for the vast majority of my daughters expenses (for example she has just started college and requires £750 of equipment) and she has spent at least 50% of nights with me during the past month. (I am keeping a diary since the CMS have been in touch with me for information)
My question is; Do you think that The CMS will agree with me that we have a shared arrangement and not be required to make payments to my daughters mother?
(During the past year I have taken responsibility for all GP appointments, Dentist, School issues etc.)
Thanks for any information or advice.
Hi there
Which of you claims child benefit for your daughter? Any Dads fall,into the trap,of not claiming what they're entitled to when a child comes to live with them, and this can work against them if the mother has continued to claim benefits.
It's difficult to say what the CMS will decide, but my feeling is that they will go with the mothers version and expect you to pay.
Equal shared care is difficult to prove, if there's no court order and the mother denies it. If you can convince the CMS that there is an equal split, you shouldn't have to pay.
Hi,
I was in a very similar situation and although I supplied the CMS with official documentation (letters from school, doctors, dentist etc) which all confirmed he lived with me the CMS didn't take any notice and just fell back on the old 'whoever receives child benefit is the main carer' complacent attitude. They said that they send it all to their 'Special cases' dept. who will make the decision. I even took this to Tribunal and they didn't spend more than 10 minutes looking over it. Sadly I think this is all very wrong
The mistake I made was not claiming child benefit for my son when he lived with me permanently (I wouldn't have actually received any but apparently that is rather absurdly irrelevant!) so my advice would be to try and claim this asap as this seems to carry the most weight.
Best of luck.
Thanks Adamski28
I have spoken to CMS on the telephone and they are aware that I can not claim the child benefit because of the amount of money that I earn. (they actually pointed this out to me during the phone conversation)
I have just sent them some evidence of GP, Dentist and even bank account address. I also sent them the percentage of nights that my daughter has spent with myself and her mother since I received the claim for payments (nearly 60% with myself)
I am not overly confident.
It is such a stupid system that someone can put a claim in at any time and state that their child spends a certain amount of nights with them, even though they don't and then it is up to the other parent to try and prove the claim is wrong or lose hundreds of pounds.
I could try and negotiate an agreement with my childs mother, but as the CMS calculations advice booklet clearly states that if the child spends 50% of nights with the paying parent then there is nothing to pay, it seems ludicrous.
Are you sure you can't put in a claim for child benefit? As I understand it, you can put in a claim, but opt not to receive benefits - that way you are still registered, which hopefully CMS would then accept. You'll have to act quickly in the hope that your ex hasn't already done so.
Yes, I agree with this advice to register a 'theoretical claim' if you ex already hasn't. That would help your case quite a lot as they seem to attached a lot of relevance on to it.
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