Minimum wage and maintenance

[AutumnOrange]

If someone works full time at minimum wage does that mean they have to pay £148.77 a month in maintenance for one child? Only 1 biological child but also living with 3 step children (not married) I have gone through the child maintenance calculator but not sure if I am doing something wrong as that amount doesn’t seem right to me?

That sounds in the right ball park. This is a useful website, which explains child maintenance rates:
www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/child-maintenance-rates-explained

If you earn between £200 and £800 a week (which minimum wage would fall into), maintenance is payable at the basic rate - 12% of income.

If the NRP has the child overnight at all, that amount will reduce pro rata for the nights they are with them.

The nrp can get a lower rate due to the step children (one of the biggest issues I have with the cms) although it's not a vast difference. They don't have to though. The one decent thing my ex does is not include his stepdd in the calculation.

Also, it's what you earn p/w minus pension contribution so it's not easy to assume what 'full-time nmw' adds up to.

Are there any over night stays to take into consideration?

So when I put the details in its about 145 a month based on no overnight stays

Child stays 1-2 nights a month. I didn’t realise it was a choice whether to include step children or not! That explains a lot.

The first child he lives with works out at about 7 a week deduction, each child there after is about 1/2

Thank you. What counts as a child? Up to 18?

Well yes. On the cms calculator it asks how many other children live with payer, so my ex says 0. His DsD has her mother and her dad paying for her so why should she get my ex contributing too (more than he does anyway) at the expense of his own kids? As it is she gets to live with him, unlike them and has a much higher household income than she had before he moved in, whereas my kids have lost out hugely. As I said, it's a minimal difference but means a little something that he chose not to cut it as fine as he could.