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I must be in a pretty rare situation, but any advice welcome please.
My ex took the decision (against my wishes) to move to Spain with my 16 year old son in July last year. In advance of this and despite me stating I would continue to pay maintenance at the equivalent level to that determined by the CMS, she applied to the Family Court under Schedule 1 of the Children's Act for an Order to be put in place to ensure I continued to pay - at a much-increased level as she had private school fees to cover! She did this on the basis that she would be moving outside of the jurisdiction of the CMS - a fact she stated in her court papers along with a statement that she had discussed this with the CMS and they confirmed this was correct.
The matter reached Final Hearing in December and she didn't like the outcome as the Judge thankfully applied common sense and put an Order in place exactly at the level I was paying at, which I have continued to pay at.
Move on to February this year, the time that the CMS annual review would have been due. Lo and behold, a letter arrives from the CMS....to commence their annual review!
I contacted them to say this must be an error and their response was that this was the first they'd heard of my ex moving abroad and they would contact her to investigate.
2 weeks later they contact me to say that she has denied moving abroad. They also state that as she is still in receipt of Child Benefit, the case would remain open. I respond to say that she is lying (due to her not liking the outcome of the court Order) and that the .GOV.UK guidelines state that Child Benefit can continue to be paid if the parent moves abroad if they are in receipt of certain benefits (which I know she is).
The CMS are adamant that they cannot/will not close the case purely because Child Benefit is being paid. My argument is, surely the fact that she is no longer in the UK should override this and given that the government's own guidelines clearly state child benefit can be paid when someone lives abroad, this cannot be a valid test?
I have now applied to the Family Court asking the judge's permission to release the statements of truth my ex submitted which clearly state that she had relocated to Spain (and that she had spoken to the CMS and they had confirmed she was moving out of their jurisdiction) in the hope that this will convince the CMS that the case should indeed be closed, but I am not hopeful given their current attitude.
Any advice on how else to convince the CMS that the case needs to be closed?
Hi there
What about the Final Order from December, that should be enough proof I would have thought. A court order for a financial settlement in regard to child maintenance cannot be overriden by the CMS for twelve months, so if nothing else, I wouldn't have thought they could act on the review.
If you're not getting anywhere with them, you could ask your MP to help.
All the best
Is the effect of this that you are paying maintenance at the level the CMS set (which you had agreed to do anyway), or are you now having to pay more than that. If it's the former, then I'm not sure whether going to court will achieve anything, as I'm not certain that Spain is necessarily outside the jurisdiction of the CMS, or if it is, might then be covered by REMO, in which case the CMS rules would still apply.
If you are paying to her directly, as well as through CMS, then I would say that you should be able to stop paying directly, as I can't imagine that a court would compel you to pay twice if you stopped paying and she went back to court.
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