I have paid c. £900-£1000 pm without fail each month in Child Maintenance to my exwife for my 2 teenage daughters. This amount is in line with the CSA calculation.
However, in addition, I pay £30 pm for contact lenses, £60 pm for dance lessons and £75pm (50%) contribution towards bus pass for daughter to go to school.
My exwife recently made a claim to CSA claiming that I was under-declaring my income. This claim has been concluded and I proved that I was not misdeclaring and as a result my monthly payments have remained the same.
However - as a result of this experience, I have received advice which suggests that the additional costs I have listed (namely contact lenses and bus fare to/from school) should be covered by the Child Maintenance.
I am aware that I cannot request a breakdown of what the Child Maintenance is used for by my exwife, but I find it hard to explain how there would be no change from £1000 pm after paying for food and clothes for 2 teenage girls?
I should also mention that I pay half of the mortgage on the family home (£900 pm) and have retained a 49% share. The house must be sold when my youngest reaches 21 (7 years time).
Please can anyone advise re the bus fare and contact lenses? Should these be covered by the child maintenance payment?
Thanks for any advice.
hi,
yes the every day living costs of child are covered by the child maintenance payment, so you don't have to pay anything on top of your fixed monthly payment:
Child maintenance covers how your child's living costs will be paid when one of the parents does not live with the child
@bill337 thank you so much for your kind reply.
I have formally written to her today to confirm that I will be paying the full CSA amount, but will be unable/unwilling to pay for the "extras" which should be included in this. I have told her that, if she wants me to review this, she will need to provide a detailed breakdown of where the £1,000 per month is being spent - so I can judge whether it is insufficient to cover the cost of food/clothing/needs for 2 girls. I have stressed that she is under no obligation to provide this information - but likewise, I am under no obligation to pay the extras, so if she wants me to reconsider, she will need to demonstrate how she is spending the £1,000 pm (which is 3 times the average CSA payment for 2 girls....).
I am sure that this will cause an explosion of angry text messages - which I will ignore.......
@richieperr Child maintenance covers your share of the cust of providing for your children, and that includes all the usual stuff, but also the cost of providing a roof over their heads. Since you are paying half of the mortgage, I am not sure about this at all, so have a word with CMS directly to see whether that is an expense that can be deducted from your gross income for the purposes of the calculation.