Ex raised CMS claim against me

[Hayley1256]

My ex has raised a CMS claim against me. We have 1 DD who is 10 and have a true 50/50 arrangement. I may have a few extra nights a year as we take her on longer holidays. I earn about 30k more than him but don't earn above 65k.

I'm really panicking that they are going to make me pay him money and could do with understanding how this works as I thought no CMS would be due from either of us due to the 50/50 arrangement.

I've always claimed the child benefit as I pay for all her school meals, uniforms costs, clothing, after school clubs etc. I also arrange all her medical appointments - will they actually make me pay him money?

How very odd. Has he, by any chance, recently changed his relationship status or had a new baby?

Yes he (well his partner) had a new baby at the end of last year. Does this affect things?

Is the 50/50 court ordered? Do you have written proof at all?

I would actually make a counter claim against him tbh, you get the benefits for her, and have her slightly more. Then say you'll drop it if he does.

No not court ordered just by agreement. I responded online to the claim and then called them, they said they need to establish who is the primary carer so they asked me some questions about who pays for school meals, clothes, activities, childcare, who's GP and dentist is she registered with etc. I answers me/ mine to all of them and can evidence this. I'll have to look into how I make a counter claim. Honestly he is the ex H that keeps giving lol!

So he’s probably feeling the pinch a bit with his partner on maternity, this shouldn’t affect your agreement because he choose to have another baby but some men will try anything! Has he explained why he has gone for maintenance?

https://financialremediesjournal.com/child-maintenance-in-cases-of-equal-shared-care/

It can get complicated but CMS can only be applied if there is an imbalance of care. If the care is 50/50 then CMS don't have jurisdiction, so only the family court can make an order.

No he's not mentioned it, we rarely talk though. I just received a letter from them this morning.

@Lougle thanks that's good to know

I wouldn’t counter claim if you have a true 50/50 set up as no CMS is due.

i would, however, gather all of your evidence together (including a diary of exact dates and times) to show as much, and I would also expect him to try and contest the child benefit as that is very often the main thing CMS look for.

How cheeky of him to do this and without discussion! I too would counter claim.

Keep evidence. It’s not true 50/50 just based on nights if one parent is doing all the school admin, medical appointments and paying for all the extras.
And if he continues to pursue, counter claim against him as with all the extras you provide, and you claiming the CB, you’re the primary parent.

It is common misconception that no CM is payable if a 50/50 arrangement is in place. If one parent earns significantly more than the other then CM does indeed become payable even with 50/50!

I wouldn't say I earn significantly more than him. I feel so annoyed at the audacity of him raising this claim but starting to feeling calmer and I haven't messaged him about it.

Really depends if the 50-50 is through the courts. At least as far as I know - I'm female and my ex tried to pull this on me because I earned more than him, even though I already paid for absolutely everything! This was 20 years ago so things might have changed.

You said you earn £30k a year more ? That is significant. Sounds like he’s chancing it.

No it's not. It's really not! And it's irrelevant. 5050 shared care then nothing is due through the CMS.

If he wants money he'll have to apply to court and they'll laugh him out the building.

They'd need to be earning over £150K for that to be a factor

In my experience the only way CMS is affected by a new baby is if the non-resident parent is paying CMS...as a notional amount for the new baby's care is then taken account of before the CMS calculations are done. But as your XH isn't paying any maintenance because you have a 50/50 arrangement, then his maintenance cannot be reduced...and equally you cannot be liable to pay him as you have a 50/50 arrangement...

He's a chancer...I can understand why he's your ex (I have one of these as well!)

This is just not true.

OP if you are in receipt of child benefit then you wont be paying him anything anyway.

As seen by the other posts mums who have gone for maintenance in 50/50 cases they both lost.

So unless he has something magically up his sleeve you won’t end up paying him 30k isn’t. A big enough difference that would push it over the limit.

Many years ago my husband's solicitor explained that there isn't a "true" 50/50 split because a year has 365 nights, so one parent will always have one more overnight stay than the other. At the time we had his children on a week-on/week-off arrangement.
The solicitor also advised that any difference in Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculations would be negligible. His ex-wife never made a CMS claim, although she could have done. It's worth remembering that the exact number of overnight stays can affect the maintenance calculation, even in what is generally considered a 50/50 shared care arrangement.

Here's another useless bum of a man, weaponising gender equality 🙄

Are you sure it is CMS and not a child benefit rival claim? You need the child benefit in order to apply for CMS and you stated you had the child benefit.

I got maintenance when 50/50
Ex DH was on £170000

Can you explain under what circumstances CMS would require payments in a true 50:50 arrangement where neither parent earns over £150K?

Thanks for the replies! I didn't think 30k was a significant difference as I don't earn 6 figures, I could maybe understand if I was a really high earner and he wasn't.

@GeorgeA12 the letter I received said I could owe him over 6k a year starting in August this year. It's really made me panic. There was no mention of child benefit but when I rang them I said that I have always received it. I do wonder what he's actually told him and whether he's lied about who pays for her school meals uniforms, medical appointments etc. Thankfully I can easily obtain evidence that I do all of this.