unbiased opinions very welcome re paying rent over maintainence

[AmIBeingAPushover]

aargh!! just did a huge message and mumsnet went offline!!!

Basics are - ex pays £500 per month for 5 children

says he cannot pay this month as no money after his bills go out.

is this fair?

any questions please ask :)

[jezebelle]

depends, child support is a percentage of wage usually, look on csa website and do a calculation.

[AmIBeingAPushover]

its not really the amount its him not paying at all.

is his rent/car loan more important than maintainence? I feel not, but obviously I would and need others thoughts :)

[Error]

I would say paying rent is pretty damn important! You don't want the father of your children to become homeless do you? Car loan.. well if he needs a car to go to work, then that's quite important too. But how has his circumstances changed, how has he been able to pay before, but not now?

[mumblechum1]

Get onto the CSA. They'll do the assessment (should be 25% of his net income after tax, NI and pension contributions) and if he doesn't pay you can have it taken out of his wages.

Doesn't help with this month's problem, but you do have a legal redress - use it!

[AmIBeingAPushover]

no i dont want him to be homeless and yes car is very important to his work.

thanks for your opinion it helps to not be too annoyed with him!

[mumblechum1]

btw you'll get professional advice from other lawyers if you post this in Legal

[AmIBeingAPushover]

thanks mumble :)

[AmIBeingAPushover]

any other views most welcome!

[niceguy2]

The question of paying rent over maintenance is completely the wrong question.

The real question is why he cannot pay anything.

Either he's paying too much relative to his income or he's mismanaging his money.

The CSA calculator should tell you roughly how much he should be paying per month. That's based on a percentage so he should never be in a position where he cannot pay something.

So for example if he's been paying £500 per month then his take home pay should be around £2000 assuming he never sees the kids.

So if that's the case and he still cannot pay then he needs to downsize his lifestyle so that he can pay. Or have the kids for more overnights so he doesn't have to pay as much.

If he's earning £1000 and trying to pay you £500 then obviously that's a non-starter.

And as for fair or not, remember that fair is a relative concept. To you, no. To him yes. Hence why we have judges!

[mumblechum1]

Actually Niceguy, judges no longer get involved in decisions re. child mtc except in very exceptional circs.

The CSA are the body who make the decisions now.

[allnewtaketwo]

"So if that's the case and he still cannot pay then he needs to downsize his lifestyle so that he can pay. Or have the kids for more overnights so he doesn't have to pay as much"

Does he have the children to stay overnight? Because if he does, and there are 5 of them, then he's also having to finance the rent of a much bigger property than he otherwise would. Surely you don't want your children to be either living in a shoebox or hovel when they're with them, even if you don't care about him.

Is he earning a lot? £500 does sound high. Yes there are 5 of the, but he won't be benefitting from any state help towards his costs for the children.

[Vibrant]

I think we need a bit more detail - is he unable to pay because there simply isn't the money, or is he really bad at budgeting or making poor choices about how to spend the money he has?

He does have to pay his rent, but equally he needs to budget for maintenance in his outgoings and make it a regular payment so you know where you are with your income.

[Riakin]

As niceguy says its all relative.

If he is paying £500 a month then his monthly income must be around the £2,500 mark.

How long has this arrangement been for? Has he missed payments previously?

In response to someone above Judges do actually get to question and re-set Child Maintenance limits. This does not solely come down to the CSA. Hence why yesterday a judge ordered a Dad earning £30k to increase his £200 a month maintenance to £300.

If this amount was agreed through a Court Order set by a Judge he could be in breach of this. If the Court Order has exceeded 12months, the CSA could get involved (however i would strongly urge against this, the CSA are more hassle than they are worth).


One final question to bat the ball back so to speak. Do you work?

[AmIBeingAPushover]

yes I work

thanks for all those replies they have helped a lot