Separating - finances

[Mumao]

My oh and I are separating. Not married, rented house. He is moving into a 1 bedroom flat and will be having dc 2/3 nights a week. He’ll be paying rent of £900 a month.

I am staying in the rented house for a month or two after he moves, just until dc is used to his (hoping that’s a good plan!?)

so I’m going to be left with rent of £1500 per month (until I find something cheaper) plus bills. We have nursery fees to pay.

Neither of us will get any financial support where we live.

How can we sort this fairly!? I don’t even know where to start!

Any advice?

Oh and he works full time and I reduced hours, but earn pretty similar.

You're not married so the only recourse you have is to child maintenance. Have you looked at the CMS calculator to see how much you should be receiving from your exdp based on the nights he'll have them?

Yes but why should he pay to me? I just want to go in with all of the facts.

Dc is at will be at my home during the days she isn’t at nursery (she only goes to nursery 2 half days a week). So my energy bills will be higher and I will need a bigger place (outside space etc) so that will equal more expensive rent.

I want to be fair but haven’t a clue.

Are you married?

I only ask because it influences what you're entitled too (or likely to be able to secure).

If you're not married, then fair would be for him to give you as much as you need to properly look after your child whilst you still fed/house yourself, whilst leaving him with enough to look after himself and your child when the child is with him.

If you're not married, then you are entitled to the CMS rate of child maintenance, which is a defined percentage of his salary.

Either of you may be entitled to Tax Credits/Universal Credit, depending on your individual finances.

We aren’t married. Tax credits etc don’t apply where I live nor cms but I have looked at it and think that’s a good starting point.

In order to get child maintainence where we live, it has to be court ordered and the costs of the legal advice etc borne by each individual so trying to avoid that!