I am currently paying my ex a personally agreed maintenance allowance for our kids based on my yearly income. She demands to see my p60 each year or says she will put a claim in through the CSA or child maintenance agency. I have no issue with paying and we used the online calculator to agree on an amount. I worked a lot of overtime and my payments to my ex reflect this however my overtime has come to a stop And I have no plans to do any more.
so this tax year she will see a large drop in my income as I only worked overtime for 6 months and what I give her will drop.
The question is that as I won't be working overtime any more should I only give her the amount based on my basic wage or should I wait until April 2016 to start doing that?
To make it clear the money I earned last year is used to calculate what I pay for the next 12 months.
I know that when the money goes down she will kick off but I can't physically continue doing extra and don't see why I should line her pockets.
I may drop her money after 3 months into the new tax year as I will have my psyslips to prove my income .
I find the whole system unfair as I don't see why she should benefit from me working extra hours and it actually means I have less choice in how I spend my money on my children but that is another argument for another day lol.
Would it be worth going down the CSA route to avoid any confusion? I made a decision to match the minimum payments that the calculator stated:
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-child-maintenance
I was told by my ex that this is 'what an absent father would pay' ...
Well yes I use the calculator and I have considered going through the proper channels because my ex demands extras for uniforms and trips etc. It's difficult because my son lives with me for half the week but my daughter doesn't. The rules seem to state that payments are worked out on your last 12 months income which is a bit unfair if your income goes down.
I would go down the CMS route if you are prepared to stand your ground and say that you pay nothing on top of the calculation.
Yes I agree on that, what bugs me is if her earnings go up I still pay the same but if mine go up I pay more. It puts me off working overtime, it's not a fair system.
The CMS system means that they only change the payments if the payment (ie your earnings) would change by more that 25% either way, so you could earn a reasonable amount of overtime once the initial calculation is done, or you could earn lots of overtime and put that money into pension as that is allowable.
Hello Trinity
With you having a family-based arrangement in place you may wish to speak to the other parent in regards to your change in circumstances and the amount of maintenance you pay. Family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable and there are no strict rules or formulas to stick to when calculating child maintenance. Therefore, parents can decide the terms of their agreement to suit their current circumstances.
The Child Maintenance Options website has a useful tools and guides section that you and your ex-partner may find helpful when trying to negotiate their family-based arrangement. This can be found at http://www.cmoptions.org.
If an application were made to the Child Maintenance Service they calculate maintenance using the amount of gross income given to HMRC by a paying parent, their employer or their accountant to work out the average amount of earnings, or, where the paying parent is self-employed, their taxable profits. For every case, the gross income figure will be reviewed each year in order to take account of newer income information given to HMRC.
If during the year earnings from employment change temporarily from week to week due to overtime or bonuses, this usually would not make a difference to the amount a paying parent must pay in the 2012 scheme. But if there is a more permanent change to current income and this differs from this by 25% or more from the income figure previously used then the paying parent can apply to have a temporary new calculation put in place. They will need to provide evidence for this but, if successful, the new calculation will usually apply at least up until the next Annual Review.
Paying parents are legally responsible only for the amount worked out by the Child Maintenance Service, and are not obliged to pay for anything extra unless they wish to do so. I have included a link on how the Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance that you may find useful, https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.
For more information on the different ways to set up child maintenance, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William