Child Maintenance/Spousal Maintenance Advice

[Allycat]

Hi there. I think that myself and SBTXH have reached an agreement at last regarding the finances of our split, amicably as well - hurray!

However, he has been to see a solicitor and the solicitor has suggested that cm and sp are set out as follows:-

With his earnings, the cm he has to pay on his basic is about £767.
He has earned a bonus this year, which means the csa calc says he needs to pay about £900 (incl basic)

As his bonus is not guaranteed (although he has received a similar about for the last 3 years), he has said that he wants things worded as follows:-

He is happy to pay slightly above the csa figures (which I am delighted about, obviously).

He will pay £1k per month, of which £767 is noted as child maint and £233 is spousal.

Child maintenance and spousal maintenance are payable until my youngest reaches 18, or if I co-habit. If the relationship with the new partner fails, spousal will kick in again.

I can not separately claim for maintenance on his bonus unless I just receive mandatory cm of £767, so will lose my spousal and end up worse off.

House and other assets have all been sorted and agreed separately.

Is there any tricks in this that you can see?

Many thanks.

[Letitgoletitgo]

I've an order, signed off by court six months ago, which details cm at a set amount each month, which works out much higher than the CSA rate. It also has nominal spousal maintenance of £1 which I plan never to use, but sol said a judge would like to see it there as an emergency back up! I asked for the full monthly amount to be cm, not split as cm/sm. My ex agreed. My reasoning was that in the future I did not want to have to choose between a relationship and my children. May sound selfish, but we aren't talking huge amounts of money here, it barely covers rent /build. I didn't want to have to say I couldn't move in with someone else and progress my own life as it could be to the expense of my kids not having enough to live off of. I know that may sound silly, but XH agreed to it, so at least I know exactly what I'm getting till they are 18. We split other assets 50/50, and I have forgone his pension and any extra bonuses to get this.