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Hello
Please can you help - advice needed.
In 2002 a consent order for maintenance was made which i am happy with and fully agreed to.
In 2014 my ex wife asked me if i would agree to a variation of the case order as she wanted to move and the mortgage company need to establish her income.
In short the order was varied to extend the age that maintenance would be now be paid until my son was 21 rather than 19 and the amount to be paid was increase by £70 to £400 pcm. This was stated in the court submission for the variation
My ex wife has not moved house and I feel that the additional maintenance is not being used for the purposes of supporting my son.
I am unhappy with this situation and so my questions are:
1. As the order was varied after March 2003 can I opt out of the order completely?
2. As the variation took place in 2014, can i now opt out of the variation?
3. If I can do neither of the above, what options do i have?
Thanks for any help and guidance
Hi There,
.
As actd has said usually when a court order an amount to be paid in maintenance it has a time scale of 12 months after that you can set up a case with CMS, I'm not 100% certain how this works when a date has been set on the order though so when you child reaches 21.
.
I would make an appointment with a solicitor and just ask them to look over the order to see if you can go through CMS, many solicitors offer a 30 min consultation for free, they are mainly tryin to get the details of your case but you will be able to ask some questions.
.
GTTS
Hello Bigvern
Any Consent Orders that were endorsed after March 2003 are not legally subject to change unless they have been in place for at least 12 months. After 12 months, either parent can apply to the Child Maintenance Service and the Consent Order will no longer be valid. However, if a Consent Order dates back to before April 2003, then law does not allow parents to change over to the Child Maintenance Service. Only the courts can arrange child maintenance in such circumstances. You may wish to seek legal advice as to where you stand regarding the change of your Consent Order back in 2014, to see if you are able to look at alternative arrangements for child maintenance.
For more information on all the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. There is a legal section on there that you may also find helpful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
Thanks for all the advice.
It seems that it might be a grey area regarding the variation and whether an opt out is possible.
I only wish to opt out of the variation part of the consent order, so will keep on investigating etc...
Any further thoughts are most appreciated
regards
I think as the other mods have said, it's worth taking some legal advice from a solicitor on this and many offer free advice. Your local CAB office can provide you with details of local firms who offer that.
Good luck
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