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?

Maintenance in a true 50/50 case is only payable when there is a really significant difference in income and the child would have a drastically different lifestyle with each parent.

The cases that came across my desk when I worked for CMS are all ones that ended up in court instead (they can bring it back to CMS a year and a day after a court order) with at least one very high income involved. CMS wouldn’t consider the OP a high earner on the figures she’s given.

Ok so you have nothing to worry about. There can be no claim against you for the CMS until he holds the child benefit. Just be careful if he asks to have your child / children for three weeks (I think it is this period) as this will then mean he can then submit a rival child benefit claim and if successful then apply for CMS. I know this from experience 😔.

This is not true for CMS maintenance.

It might be true for court ordered maintenance.

To calrify some of the misleading posts on this thread:

True 50/50 shared care under regulation 50 of the 2012 regulations is not just based on time spent. It takes in to account parenting done. So OP doing all the admin with school counts in her favour and she might be able to claim CMS maintenance herself as this might not be a Reg 50 case.

If Reg 50 applies then the CMS does not have jurisdiction. That means the court has jurisdiction and can, in suitable circumstances (eg large income disparity) make an order for child maintenance.

@Moros
I received child maintenance from CMS with 50/50 when ex earned less than £100 000. I put the claim in when he was failing to do his share of 50/50. When he stepped up I adjusted the shared care to 50/50 on my CMS account and my payments were reduced but he still had to pay over £200. However, I was the recipient of Child Benefit. He put in the counter claim but was refused due to this.