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When my ex and I got divorced I gave her the house because she said the children were settled in school and if she had to give half the house up then she would have to move away to the other side of the country. I also took on all the debt we had run up in our marriage and that was £42000. Not long after everything was settled she sold the house and moved to the other side of the country along with the profits of selling up.
I have for the last 11 years drove to pick my kids up and bring them back home and return them when their stay was over. I pay for our holidays and have bought and paid for their mobile phones and contracts for all that time so we can keep in touch.
I never missed a payment through the CSA and now it has changed over to the CMS I find it has gone from £318 to £491 a month and my financial circumstances have not changed a penny. Why?
My Ex also says I have my children for less than 52 nights a year, which is wrong, but apparently there is nothing I can do about it so the cms have informed me. They asked if I had a court order or a solicitors something or other. I explained my kids are 18 and 15 so why would I have any of them?
I have tried to get in touch with my Ex but she will not answer her phone or reply to my messages.
I have a partner and we have not budgeted for the £180 increase in child maintenance a month and I feel very hard done too.
Ian
A bit rushed... but if you search on these forums, you will find previous posts about being in dispute and the 52 night rule.
Regarding the 52 a night rule....if the parents are in dispute, the CMS should "award" you the 1 night per week reduction anyway. Obviously, as they automatically side with resident parents/mothers... they do not volunteer this information.
So...you have to say, "I dispute this - I do have children for more than 52 nights per year. What are your procedures when there is a dispute amongst parents?"
If you look here http://www.singleparents.org.uk/information/child-maintenance/shared-care-all-cms-schemes
At the bottom of the page under the " 2012 Child Maintenance Service" heading you will find these words:
The scheme differs because it allows for the CMS to assume an amount of shared care equivalent to one night a week (and to reduce the amount by one seventh) if there is:
- No agreement between the person with care and the non resident parent; or
- Insufficient evidence of any established pattern of shared care; or
- No court order that sets the amount of contact
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