Child maintenance

[Benny89]

So this is my predicament
My husband and I split up over 5 years ago and the financial disclosure went through and a court order re child maintenance was set up.
We have one child and have been together 18 years.
As I left him I felt terribly guilty and avoided going for spousal, pension and we literally went 50/50 on the house and I was given £600 a month for CM. Since he has remarried he has chosen to take early retirement and changed the payments overnight from £600 to £130 advising he is on less than 13k income. This is very hard to believe when he has a very large house owned outright, a flat in London he rents out and has about 6. Holidays a year.
I have been in touch with CMS and they confirmed it’s taxable income that’s looked at. The issue I have he was a finance director and is very clever at hiding his money. Any advice would be appreciated.

Not sure what advice you are looking for? His income may well be much lower - he may be relying on his new wife for income.

slight rail road- but this is what pisses me off when people think higher rate tax payers are the devil. Salaries aren't the problem it is earnings. The Rich are clever with their earnings- That's from investments like S&S, property, commodities (e.g gold and oil)
It is morally abhorant but it isn't illegal. It's just crap that he thinks he can get around supporting his child because he has set him self up financially to live off multiple sources of income rather than wages.

P.S he may have financial knowledge being an FD but can we stop making out Accountants are bad people. All the stuff they know you can find out yourself reading books and researching on the internet- none of it is secret.

How old is the child? How often do they stay with their father?

im not sure theres anything you can do unless you can prove his actual income is higher?

He is liable to pay the amount in the court order until it is formally varied. Once an order has been in place for a year, the way to vary it it to apply to the CMS, who will determine the amount payable. They will use HMRC information to do that.

So, if he wants to pay less, he should apply to CMS for a determination. That will figure out what his income is, and produce the right number based on his taxes. If he is hiding income from HMRC, that's likely to be a criminal offence. But you have no actial basis for believing he is doing that - if hebhas retired, then it is very likely that his income has, indeed, dropped.

singledad sounds like that is exactly what he's done..

well said @whothedaddy

All this information is out there, a finger tip browse away.

Its not rocket science that assets are not income, and its actually irrelevant if he has a house or a string of polo ponies for fun. That is not his income. His income is his pension.

He was liable and whilst he’s breached the court order my solicitor advised we would end up in court with him saying his circumstances have changed and probably just end up with a slap on the wrist and me paying the court costs!
He has a large pension but not drawing on it until he’s 65 which is in 5 years and by then my son will be 19!

He's paying the CMS standard for one child. Why should he pay more? You divorced over five years ago, why are you still expecting him to support you? Support yourself, he's paying for his child.

I don’t get it as when my husband’s income dropped by 25% after economic crash in early 2000s his application to reduce spousal maintenance (not child support) was not considered. He’d also had two more children in the meantime (with me) but that apparently didn’t count either!

I do support myself and work full time I also have my child full time .

If it’s a court order, he can’t change it without a variation. He can go back to court, but until then he’s liable for the amount in the order.

myfeetarekillingme hilarious you think that the £4.00 a day her ex pays to support his dc is also somehow supporting OP. Seriously?? Of course he should be paying to support the dc he helped to create.

Myfeetarekillingme** please can you tell me how the maintenance is supporting the RP here? It wouldnt even cover my DD's school lunch!

Selective reading in force here ladies! How does £600 a month equal £4 a day? OP is complaining she doesn’t get £600 a month, I’m suggesting she should support herself as she’s getting the child maintenance to support her child. I’m not saying the £130 supports her but the £600 certainly does!

This is why CMS laws and regulation needs changing to factor in assets such as capital, dividend income, rental income, etc..
A non-resident parent could have £100K in savings and not have to pay a penny in maintenance if they are unemployed.

OP, I've heard that if a non-resident parent has sizeable assets, you may be able to sue for child support under The Children's Act. I don't know how factual this is though.