Ex applied to deduct travel costs from child maintenance

It’s so difficult though mine is blatantly advertising a 30 grand a year. Business on top of his salary and social media posts aren’t sufficient proof apparently.

Please Google notional income CMS as a lot of people aren’t aware of this.

basically if he has an asset with a value of more than £31,250 they will calculate CMS at 8%

Except that none of this is based on anything OP has actually said. I agree there are two sides to every story but the variance in yours equates to the OP coming on MN and telling a pack of lies.

You’re absolutely right, it’s actually four round trips per month because each time he has to travel there and back to collect the child, and again to drop them off.

CMS would ask him to work out his weekly mileage, so if OP is correct and it’s 100 mile round trip four times a month, this would work out at 100 miles a week. CMS would apply the current standard mileage rate (I’ve used standard rather than the lower rate since OP says he drives an SUV) which works out at £18 per week, or £936 per year, which CMS would deduct from his gross annual income.

Assuming the standard 12% liability for one child, the cost to him would be reduced by about £2.16 per week, or £9.36 per month.

It is between him and the Nursery. She needs to withdraw the Monday from her schedule that she pays for and remove that availability for him.
If he wants to use Nursery, he has to pay for it but it’s no good sending the bill to the Solicitor, it’ll go straight in the bin

He doesn’t live 140 miles away. It’s about 100 miles return trip. Not sure why he’s put in for every week, I assume he’s averaging it.

I know my earnings aren’t his problem, never said they were. I used to earn about 20k more but unfortunately after having our child I began having health problems and I was diagnosed with a long term condition. I had to leave my job for something more manageable for my condition. I still work full time and do the best I can.

My point was, that I am much worse off than him, what he pays monthly doesn’t even come close to our child’s nursery costs let alone anything else they need. He’s taking away from our child, not me. I just felt it was a very petty action from him, especially when I know he can afford these costs.

For what it’s worth, one of the nursery days which I pay for, will technically be his day, but I just pay it because it’s not worth the hassle.

Spot on. If I had £1 for every thread I’ve read on MN where the OP has posted exactly this…………………

From what I remember despite tghe fact that my ex moved away and point blank refused to have anything to do with DS's transport while I could claim minimal travel expenses that would mean that I could not claim a reduction for the nights he spent with me

I think the way this works is that Dad says:” I can’t do weekdays because I work”. Mum says “If you have every weekend I am doing all the weekday drudge with no downtime with the kids” So then it’s every other weekend for the dad because he won’t countenance changing his working life to accommodate childcare, either paid or provided by himself.

Yes, that's true. But here's an example of what could be going on:

Her version of the story:

He's a deadbead. He doesn't care. He doesn't see his children enough. His contact is sporadic. His payments are unreliable. He's loaded so should be doing more. He abandoned them. I'll make sure they know what he's like.

His story:

Following the divorce, I've had to move back in with my parents. I'm in the process of renting a flat, but it's time consuming and costly. I'm working every spare hour and paying my ex what I can while also trying to set up the new place so my children can stay. I work shifts but due to the conflict between me and my ex, unfortunately she makes plans with the children during my weekends off and makes them available at the times I have to work. She seems to revel in telling everyone what a deadbeat I am. I'm worried what she's saying to the children. I'm struggling at the moment but I'm sure things will get better soon. I want to be a good dad.

It's not 2 journeys every other week though unless travel is being shared 50:50. It's 2 round trip journeys EOW which works out as 8 single journeys per month.

It's from his home to child's home, from child's home to his home on a Friday night. Then from his home to child's home on a Sunday, and from child's home back to his home. X2 per month.

That probably does amount to a fair amount of fuel if he lives 35 miles away.

Yes, go for it. As soon as I learned about his travel costs claim I would have claimed the nursery day cost. Why shouldn’t he pay it?

He’s too much of an arse to ever stop trying to control you. Perhaps send his nursery bill to him via his solicitor! He won’t ever pay but his solicitor receiving it will cost him money!

Except he is not taking money from his child. He is paying for the fuel, tyres, oil, tolls etc. out of his own wage. He has asked CMS to allow him to pay these essential costs needed for his children to spend time with both parents BEFORE they run their calculation for maintenance. The outcome will be maintenance will reduce by about a fiver. It's a token of acknowledgement of the costs that non-resident parents have to pay.

The alternative is resident parents agree to meet half way. I can assure you that will cost more than a fiver at the distances stated though.

Maybe he had to move there because it's what he could afford. Maybe it's nearer to his work. Maybe it's nearer to family support.

Heaven forbid Dad wants a bit of extra money to buy his child a pizza or an ice cream during his time. What a deadbeat he must be!!!

Well if what OP says is true and he wanted nothing to do with his child for a long time and then had to be forced to pay maintenance, EOW is what I’d expect.

You only have to look on MN threads to realise there are a lot of non resident dads doing the bare minimum despite mum wanting and asking for more input.

Many, many, many men have no say in the matter. Until more mothers are prepared to switch roles and become the non-resident parent, EOW and half the school holidays is what Dads get.