To ask the CMS for a review even though I already receive a lot of money from ex?

[PilgorTheGoat]

I receive £1,200 pcm in child maintenance. I appreciate this is a lot of money. Ex doesn’t contribute anything else. I pay for all clubs, hobbies, etc. I provide a bag of clothes for when the children stay with him.

This amount was agreed 3 years ago. It was the amount recommended by the CMS calculator at the time. My ex has earned a substantial promotion since then.

I am scared to speak to him about money. He was abusive towards me throughout the majority of our marriage.

AIBU to ask him to review the amount he pays in maintenance? I honestly don’t know either way.

That’s only through CMS. Anything beyond that is done by the courts as it’s high value and done a simple percentage calculation

Indeed. But OP was talking about asking CMS to re-evaluate. I was just trying to manage expectations

I’m pretty sure CMS may see that as diverting income. Not 100% sure how it works but if you look on the gov website it talks about ways the paying parent may divert income and increasing pension contributions is one of them. So still worth getting him checked out.

They should be reviewing his salary annually anyway? As far as I am aware any other reconsiderations can only be made if the change in his salary is 25% more than it was at the previous annual assessment.

Definitely worth looking up. You should receive what you are entitled to, doesn’t matter whether other people survive on much less! (Going from comments I’ve seen on previous threads like this as well)

It isn’t currently done through the CMS, we just used their calculator online when we divorced.

I definitely recommend going through CMS.

My ex was also abusive. We made our own arrangements based on the salary he told me he was on. I wanted to go through CMS but he was being manipulative and controlling and I was worried what could come of it (more in the sense of his actions afterwards).

I eventually went through CMS and turned out he was underpaying me all along, the payments went up, he has recently been reassessed and it has gone up quite a bit more than I expected. He would never have voluntarily increased it by that amount. It’s the best thing I did.

When I first applied for it I thought even if he owed me less than what he was giving me at that stage I’d just be happy that I knew it was fair. 100% worth it (for me anyway, I know other peoples circumstances would differ).

When I went to CMS they calculated £800 on ex’s then £70k salary so I doubt he’s over the limit. (Sorry I may have misread your post - do you mean they don’t take into account anything over that so there is a ceiling on how much she can get?)

That was for two children.

Yes 👍 that’s what I meant, there’s a ceiling