I have DS aged 7 with my ex, we split when he was tiny. For a while he paid up every week, then it dwindled out when he got new girlfriends and his ott spending habits so I contacted he csa to make a claim so for the best part of 5-6 years he paid for our son through the csa and it was nice because I knew when I could expect it. I relied on it heavily when DS was younger and I lived in my own, not so much else I’m in a better financial situation but it’s still handy as we’ve had a lot of unexpected costs this last few weeks and DS needs new shoes and it’s half term. Our Csa claimed stopped about 6 months ago. Anyone that has recently dealt with the csa will probably knew the old stopping and the new child maintenance system would charge to encourage parents to make their own arrangements.
My ex didn’t want to pay extra for the new system so he said he would set up a direct debit to my bank every month so I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt.
So 6 months on, payments have been late, he’s been paying me monthly (or later) rather than the 4 weekly guaranteed I had through the csa. As far as I know his new partner is in control of his finances (he is terrible with money) but still not no excuses.
I don’t want to ask him for it as I don’t want to make it seem I rely on it for DS but does everyone think this is quite bad on their behalf?
It’s almost like she’s annoyed about paying for DS. They’ve just had a baby..
My question is.. should I go through the the child maintenance system again (not sure what the new system is actually called) if he doesn’t get any better at paying?
He only has DS for a few hours a week so he can’t use having him often as excuse because it’s the complete opposite 🤷♀️