Ex upped his pensions to this, can I contest?

[Coldcoldhesrts]

Or is there no point? He is earning 70k, paying 40k into pension which I know is allowed. It means his maintenance payments are less than half what they would otherwise be. This seems very unfair? I can’t top up my pension as I need to provide for our dc. Can I do anything?

When he do this? After you applied for CM? They can look at pensions as diverted income.

@Shitfather no just before I applied but he knew I was going to apply as I asked him for maintenance first and said if he didn’t I would have to go to cms

Are you divorced and do you have a claim on his pension?

Is the Maintenance calculated on the 30k?

Yes. You can ask them to review the calculation. If he is found to have deliberately done it in order to minimise maintenance then they set aside his extra pension contributions and calculate as if he wasnt making them; they'll calculate on what he would be bringing home if he hadn't upped his contribution.
I cant remember the name of the appeal you ask for off the top of my head but google child maintenance and pension contributions and you'll find it.

@WeepingSomnambulist thanks, my worry is I think he did it just before I claimed so I guess he could argue he didn’t know I would claim even though I had told him I would…

You have to he the squeaky wheel though. CMS dont follow their own policies most of the time and dont take the legal actions they can. They can force the sale of a property to cover unpaid child maintenance... but they dont.
They have a mandate to be a less involved as possible. You'll have to make it harder for them to ignore. Call them every week. Contact your MP if they haven't escalated it within a couple of weeks etc.

I know it's a pain but it's the only way to get them to do things.

@WeepingSomnambulist thanks. So exhausting men are allowed to get away with this.

Doing it just before your claim went in, after a split etc, is evidence that he did it to avoid maintenance.

£40k of pension contributions on a £70k salary will be seen as unreasonable. But you have to push it; call them, contact your MP for supporting getting them to act if they dont.

Isn't maintenance calculated on his income, not what's left after he's spent/saved some of it?

No. It is calculated after pension contributions, obviously, given OP's post and my informed reply telling OP how they handle cases like this.

Have you got a claim to his pension?

That's such a dick move OP, I hope cms correct this for you. As the pp said, be that squeaky wheel.

Partly depends on how old he is, and the amount of pension already accrued. There is a table about ages and contributions but I can't find it at the moment. www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance

You’ll really have to badger the CMS. Current waiting time is 35 weeks for a variation. They are an utter nightmare to deal with.