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Divorced for 6 years with both a child maintenance and spousal maintenance order in place which I have consistently paid on time and in full. Our 3 kids spend ~110 days per year with me.
Youngest child is still in primary school in Y5. My ex stopped paying for her school lunches in January. She had been paying this since divorce. It’s about £2.50 per day.
She said that I need to pay from now on and said she would tell my daughter that if I don’t she would tell her that her dad won’t feed her in school. I refused. Started then to escalate with school as there was 3 months of outstanding payments and they were chasing us. Her logic being that as they are with me for 4 school nights per month she is owed years of missed lunch payments.
I paid the full outstanding balance last week but then deducted this from the monthly spousal payment and explained why to my ex.
Ex is very litigious and will now commence legal proceedings to enforce payment.
Was I wrong and what should I do now?
I would look at the child maintenance calculator - if you are paying more than this for child maintenance (spousal maintenance is a separate issue), then you could open a case with CMS (Costs £20 one off fee) and they will calculate your payments, which should be similar to the calculator figure, and this overrides the court ordered child maintenance. With regards to spousal maintenance, this is something you'd need to speak to a solicitor about - they question is really, how much is it going to cost you in legal fees even if you win? It is worth looking at mediation - if you can avoid court, it will be cheaper for both you and your ex in the long run.
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