What does Child Maintenance cover?

[thisistheSEA]

I’m trying to find a list of what Child Maintenance is supposed to cover? Can’t find anything helpful online, just vague statements about food, housing and clothes.

I’d like to ask my ExH for additional money to cover:
school uniform
school dinners
school trips
private tuition (for GCSEs)
music lessons
new laptop
phone (there are two - one for school I currently pay for and he pays for her smartphone)
glasses (we usually top up the voucher amount) pocket money
gifts for friends birthdays
a contribution to holidays to see family (my family all live overseas).

Which of these would be reasonable to ask for - on top of the Child maintenance of £350 a month?

Thanks

That was for @Unknown83

[quote Associatepeggy]@Unknown83 you just, literally, mansplained mansplaining.

Mansplaining doesn't not have to include talking over someone.[/quote]

Personally I think unknown generally has a valid point and not surprised why in his case he feels aggrieved

That’s quite some character assassination of me there.

I’m not controlling. And I have no idea why you’d get that from my posts.

What I am - and I’m sure you can A/S - is autistic. So I do sometimes miss undercurrents in tone or take things and face value.

Not that I need to explain myself to you.

Hello

Can we post asking that we avoid derailing this thread? It's turning into a bit of a bunfight, so it's best not to engage anymore in order to get things back on track.

Thanks.

My ex pays £250 pm for my two youngest children. Used the cms website to calculate the amount and he pays by direct debit. From the father of my eldest child aged 14, I receive the princely sum of £2.24 per week. You, OP, are taking the piss.

What an absolute 🐑 following yet many of the other mothers trying to drain the ex for everything he has. I bet you also got to stay in the house

Ha ha ha! this is not a country where you can dry the ex for everything he has. The most a non resident parent will pay in maintenance is 20% of his net salary AFTER he pays his taxes and other deductions and overpays his pension.

Courts will also ensure they leave the couple in equal footing to provide a home for the kids, even if one parent NEVER sees the children. The one that keeps the house most often than not buys the ex off and takes over the mortgage.

Ah, and spousal maintenance is practically inexistent unless he is absolutely loaded and the mum earns a tiny fraction of what he does, and even so it may be no more than whatever small threshold marked by benefits to start reducing benefits pound by pound.

You seem to be very annoyed by feeling the need to mention about overpaying into a pension, and very female oriented about NRP being male.

Unfortunately I believe you to be wrong, 20% maximum is the official line the CMS reports to conform to, but unfortunately around 7/10 claims handled end up having fictitious arrears slapped on NRP which then leave them with not just 20% but also the the so called arrears which can take months/years to get the money back by which time NRP could be financially ruined, all the while RP gets the house, gets the kids and gets the money. The only time the CMS works is when the NRP was paying more than required but the RP gets greedy so goes through the CMS and the amount drops (actually makes my day each time I hear its happened agains) McKenzie friend in my spare time.
House has to be paid so NRP continues to pay mortgage otherwise house will be repossessed as RP will suddenly become full time carer if they weren't beforehand.

The system is broken and unfortunately too many people know how to abuse it.

Oh no, I am not bitter, just seen far too many women and very few men screwed up when it comes to child maintenance. (I get to see cases as part of my job)

Fictitious arrears my arse. Do you know why child maintenance is disregarded when it comes to benefits calculations? Because more often than not it is not paid at the right level or not paid at all. Have you ever been to the single parents topic. If you are there for enough time you will see that parents who are paid arrears are so so rare, most people think getting paid arrears is no more than a pipe dream.

Obviously, some dads are great and pay more than 20% while others just walk into the sunshine with no responsibilities or sense of duty but complaining that the woman they had children with is a bitch that doesn’t allow them to see their children.

I have seen so many children hurt, be neglected or abused by the NRP without the courts stoping contact I assume that if a parent (man or woman) doesn’t see their children it is because they did something very bad or simply, don’t care enough.

His contribution as supposed to be up to HALF of the day to day expenses of raising the children. As a single dad, you are taking the piss to ask him for half towards holidays and birthday presents for friends. I pay maintenance plus half their hobbies and half their uniforms. Nothing more. You forget when they are in his care he is paying for them too.

How can you make that assumption without knowing his income and how much he sees them??