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Hi there. I have been split from the mother of my child for nearly 2 years and I have continually paid out 300 pound a month. Recently she has gone down to having my son on 2 days a week how should I approach this ?
Hi there
If you have a private arrangement with the mother to pay maintenance, you can renegotiate a reduction with her, in fact she should be paying you! .
If you pay her through the CMS you should contact them and inform them of the changes, bur they may not listen until you can prove it, one way of doing that is to claim the child benefit.
As you have the child for the majority of time, you are classed as the primary carer. This would entitle you to claim the child benefit and any other benefits you're entitled to. If you receive the child benefit, this would be enough proof that you are entitled to receive child maintenance from her.
If she refuses to acknowledge your right to payment, you can open a claim with the CMS, however if she isnt working the amount you would receive would be minimal.
She may decide to have the child more to retain her payments, some mothers do reduce contact to increase maintenance. If you want to secure your status as primary carer, the best way to do that is to apply to court for a Child Arrangements Order to state that the child lives with you. You would need to attend mediation first, as this is a requirement before an application can be submitted, you would want an agreement from her and this could be written into a consent order. if this fails the mediator will sigh the form to enable you to go to court.
Theres lots of info about the process in the stickys at the top of the legal eagle section, which you might find useful.
Best of luck
Thankyiy so much for your help that's great!
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