School trips and money from ex

[Karigan195]

Ex husband works in the building trade as a professional not simple labourer.

We have one son together who is due to go on a cultural trip at December with school for 5 days costing £575. Its abroad.

For child maintenance I get £105 a month. Set when he was unemployed and never changed. Court order is for a percentage or this as lowest figure whichever is the highest dependant on income but he has never let me know what he actually earns.

In these circumstances would it be reasonable to ask him if he would pay half the December trip?

Can you go to CMS to get it re-evaluated now he works or does the court order override that?
Stops you having to ask him for things in the future

Simple?

Yes. Yes and thrice yes.

And as LGY1 said, try and get the monthly amount recalculated.

Of course it's reasonable. He's as responsible for his child as you are and if he has a shred of decency he'll pay his part of the trip and he'd also pay you a 'decent' proportion of his salary instead of that paltry amount he currently pays.

I appreciate the CMS calculator comes out with a set amount, but really, how many parents pay above that? I'd guess not many, and I'd also guess that the resident parent spends a heck of a lot more than the non-resident parent for the day to day costs of raising their child. It's not ok.

I would rather not do that. From my experience court and lawyers just leads to lots of money being spent and people becoming entrenched. We co parent fine and I don’t want to rock that boat