[Solved] Who gets what ???

I think the maximum you pay is 25% of your wage under the CSA (there are now new rules under CMS) - I would contact the CMS and ask them how they would calculate your payments and take it from there.

Hi Slwukuk

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.

If you have a family-based arrangement in place with both parents, there are no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, both you and the other parents have the freedom to decide the terms of your own arrangements, such as how your child maintenance will be calculated.

A family-based arrangement can include money and other kinds of support, such as you directly paying for things that your children may need. Although family-based arrangements are not legally-binding, they are very flexible and can easily be reviewed, such as if you or the other parents’ circumstances change. You can find more information on family-based arrangements on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/family/index.asp.

To help keep your arrangements amicable, we have a range of tools and guides on our website that you may find useful ( http://www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/index.asp). These tools include our discussion guide which you can use to help plan your conversation around child maintenance. We also have a family-based arrangement form that is not a legally-binding document, but if used to write down what both of you have agreed, it can help to formalise your arrangement.

If you wanted to use the statutory rules that are employed by the Child Maintenance Service, child maintenance is worked out using paying parent's gross income, which is income before Income Tax and National Insurance are taken off, but after occupational or personal pension scheme contributions are taken away. In most cases this gross income figure comes from information given to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by the paying parent, their employer or a third-party such as an accountant.

When a paying parent pays maintenance for more than one child, the Child Maintenance Service will work out the total amount payable for all children involved. This is then divided equally so that the same amount is paid for each child. The parent then pays the maintenance to the Child Maintenance Service who pass it on to the receiving parent. Alternatively, if the receiving parent agrees, the paying parent can pay them directly.

Sometimes, a paying parent may pay child maintenance for more than one child, both through the Child Maintenance Service and via a family-based arrangement. In this situation the Child Maintenance Service would take into account any maintenance that is being paid through the family-based arrangement. You can find more information on how child maintenance is worked out when child maintenance is being paid to more than one receiving parent on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.

For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. We 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