Does he have to pay child maintenance?

[OneGreyBiscuit]

Hi, I'm leaving my partner on Fri to move into social housing. It's not worked for a long time. My ds and DD are coming with me. They are 18 and nearly 14. My problem is I know what he's like with money and think he's going to be a total nightmare getting him to pay for anything for my DD. All I want is for him to pay £47.50 a month for her bus fare as I don't want her to change schools which will work out as roughly the single person council tax discount he'll now get.

Depends on his salary - you can put it in the CMS calculator online to check.

You’ll need to lodge your claim with the CMS asap, it can take weeks/months to be up and running, even if he agrees to it.

Is he employed or self-employed?

He works and earns in the region of £25k

Will DD be staying with him for any nights?
Employed or self employed?

if you tell us that we can work it out for you

She'll probably stay every other weekend. I've looked at the online calculator to see the payment. The problem is he's not likely to give anything as I know what he's like with money. His argument will probably be well you've chose to leave so I'm not paying a thing or do what his brother did and go and live on a boat to escape paying anything to his dd for years.

If all you want is the bus fare maybe you could say to him that if he pays you this, you won't go to CMS. Might make him think his life will be easier if he agrees.

So you’d be looking at around £200-£240 PM.

if he is self employed, them it’s very easy to hide his money and pay nothing. Quite honestly, from experience there is nothing you can do about that.

if he is PAYE then you need to apply for it. He will get a few months chances on direct pay and if he isn’t paying then you can request collect and pay.

@Natsku makes a good point though. If you are happy with £50 pm then you can come to a private arrangement and explain he would be paying over £200 if you went to cms.

if he has the type of job where he can go self employed then I would suggest a private arrangement. £50 is better than nothing.

Just put the CMS claim in. If you can gather any evidence before you leave do so.

I've thought exactly this, thank you.

He won't be able to get out of paying maintenance if he's employed, as it'll be taken out of his wages if he doesn't co operate.
By coming to a private agreement of under £50.00 you're not only massively short changing yourself and your kids, but you're allowing him to dangle a carrot and keep you wondering if he's going to pay up every month.

Why should he get away with paying basically nothing? Kids cost a fortune! and things are only going to get more expensive. My advice, start as you mean to go on and go through the CMS. Also, if your 18 yr old is in college, then your ex will have to pay maintenance for them too.

I would still put the application in for CMS but at first they will leave it to him to pay you and you can simply accept £50 per month. If then he starts messing you around you can then tell CMS who can escalate.

You can only get back pay from the time you made the application.

Him/or his brother living on a boat won't make any difference if he is employed as CMS can simply go to his employer. Self employed is much much harder though so that's the thing you need to worry about.

He's basically working at minimum wage so it's not unlikely that he could just move jobs to try and stymie you. It's not as if there is a lack of that kind of job around.

Definitely go by cms- why should your children get less that they are entitled to? Just keep in mind that you are not fighting for you, you are doing it for your kids.