Is it morally wrong to put large amounts into pension.

[Gearandglasses]

I found out that my exh is doing this and is therefore paying less than 40% tax and also making CSA think that he is not as high an earner as he thinks. The difference is significant, think school fees for two per year.
I don't need the money to live since I work and take care of the children full time, it just seems a little off that he'd prefer to put money away instead of buying things for the children now, whilst they are small. It just left a bitter taste, since I have nothing left each month to even think about a pension let alone high contributions as all my money goes on the children.

Even if that 'financial sense' comes before his DC and any morals?

It's abhorrent OP, I understand why he's an ex.

Well done for rising above it, holding your head high and not dragging things back through the courts. Not everyone could do that.

It may well have been that his pension was larger than yours and upon divorce it got split so to rebuild it back to the lifestyle which was planned he needs to increase the contributions while reducing tax liability for stop lots of people do it whether or not they have kids or not.

There are a lot of assumptions on this thread. Of course a man who pays extra in to his pension is doing so purely to avoid paying for his children. There couldn’t possibly be any other reason for someone maximising what they put into their pension pot. How much maintenance does he actually pay, is he an involved father etc etc. It’s currently half a story.

If she was married she will already be entitled to a share of his pension.

What does it say about me that I read the title of this post as 'Is it morally wrong to put large amounts of poo down the toilet'

@tanstaafl The limit is £60,000 before you pay tax. So if he’s lowering his tax bill, I assume it’s less than this.

@Gearandglasses If you have a clean break agreement, that’s what you have. You now cannot question what he does with his money. If every aspect of your finances was in the table you have made decisions based on that knowledge. I’m assuming your dc are not going without too much.

It’s a way wealthy men can get away with paying less than they should for their childrens care

someone with a lot of money can pay to hide away a lot of money

I don’t know enough about this, but since you say you have full time care does that mean he doesn’t see them at all?
If that’s the case, I don’t know why you’d be surprised if he used every trick possible to avoid paying. He’s a waste of space.

Pension does make financial sense. As you have not made any claim on his pension etc as part of the divorce I wouldn't be surprised if he is now playing catch up as you can backdated it for a certain amount of years. Your gripe it seems is the lack of interest in providing for the children or at least doing a little of both which is understandable

Everyone’s missing the point. OBVIOUSLY it makes financial sense to put money into a pension.

His motivation however is to keep more money to himself rather than share it with his own children.

Objectively, it's morally wrong if he's hiding his income from the CSA in order to squirrel away his earnings for himself and not have to pay towards his children. I think it's morally dubious that this is also reducing his tax bill, but regardless of that, I'd make sure the CSA are fully aware of what he's actually earning. Their calculation should be based on reality, not what he chooses to tell them.

It’s not morally wrong to pay large amounts into pension.

It is morally wrong to do so in order to deprive your children.

He’s a shit dad.

As long as the child is fed/clothed/provided for, what anyone does with the rest of their money is up to them. Putting it into a pension is a good way to minimise tax and grow money.

100%

"Mum doesn't need the money" - she doesn't have a pension AT ALL! This is why there is such a huge pension gap between men and women.

I don't understand why the OP is saying she doesn't need the money when she can't afford to pay anything into a pension herself? This means she absolutely DOES need the money and her ex is enriching himself at the expense of her/his kids. Having a clean break doesn't absolve him of paying appropriate amounts of child support, which he's clearly dodging with his pension scam.

Of course it's morally wrong.

I pay into my pension before I get the money, though, as I’m sure many do with a workplace scheme. So if what the CSA sees and acts on is the number at the bottom of the payslip after these deductions, then it’s not being “hidden from them.

he is effectively reducing the salary in which csa is calculated from (say) 60k to 50k and reducing CSA payments is probably a big reason why. Which is crap of him.

My exdh had a reasonable pension fund and he took cash down so he emptied it. I was a SAHM for years (4dc) so no pension and we even agreed to pay more into his pension as he was a higher rate taxpayer! I still can't believe he's did this and that it was legal.

If she has nothing at the end of the month to put into her own pension then she does need the money.

Maxing out pension from disposable income makes sense. Maxing out pension to reduce your contribution to your own children and using your ex to provide free full time childcare is immoral.

Yeah I pay into my pension before I get the money but surely the CSA would go on what your salary is, rather than what you actually receive each month? For the exact reason that men like this will obviously squirrel away as much as they can to avoid paying for their own kids.

The difference is significant, think school fees for two per year.

Are your children in private school?
Your problem is you’re at opposite ends of the scale. You absolutely should be putting money towards your pension and it’s utter stupidity not too.
Pension should come after bare essentials like food but before luxuries like holidays, school fees and more expensive clothes.

Apparently not (though I agree with you!)

Payments into a pension scheme
If you pay into a private pension scheme, you need to update the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). This could reduce your gross weekly income and affect how much child maintenance you have to pay.
If you pay into an occupational or employer pension scheme and deductions are taken from your pay by your employer, you do not need to tell CMS. This will have already been taken into account in your maintenance calculations.

ETA the uk gov link www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance#step-1--income-1

If you don’t have enough money left to make pension contributions then you do need the money and he is not paying a fair share for his kids.

More men really need to take on primary custody so they can start to see the meagre contributions to their kids care for what they are.

He clearly is doing it to reduce what he pays for his kids.Otherwise mom would not be unable to pay into her pension because she is picking up his financial slack.

It's morally wrong if he wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for the CMS.

Doing it solely to avoid paying more CMs is morally repugnant.

I used to be friends with someone who openly admitted if it wasn't for CMS they'd be paying less into their pension and spending it on holidays, but opted not to as CMS was "no benefit to me" (her words)