Does CM cover clubs/activities?

[Seren7]

Hi
My ex haven't moved out yet, although I'm trying to get an idea together of maintenance payments
I have looked on entitled to, and have a figure for maintenance payments
My question is- Would child maintenance be classed as covering child clubs/activities
Or would we look to split these as well as receiving CM?

Thanks

In theory, I think you should split those costs in addition to child maintenance, potentially proportionally to use (eg if he has children 2 evenings a week, he pays for 2 days after school club etc.

Unfortunately, in practice because that relies on agreement rather than being mandated, it's often difficult to get that happening. It depends on how reasonable your ex is.

If it's a technical, legal question then I think the answer is "no." And then I guess it depends what you can agree on between yourselves. Then it really comes down to some many factors personal to you. Take my situation for example:

In my case my wife only has the children 1 day a week more than me school weeks and half school holidays but gets £800 a month for doing so. It works out at something like £9,600 a year for having them 37 days more than me, or £259 for each of those days. It equates to 15% of my net income just for those 37 days alone. She also got a significant part of the asset split which means I have a much, much bigger mortgage than her even though our post-child maintenance and commute incomes are almost identical. On paper I earn a lot more than her but my relative wealth and the redistribution of my income means I'm actually about £300 a month worse off than her after housing costs and I have the children nearly as much. Consequently when it comes to clubs etc. I'm only willing to pay what they need when they are my responsibility and I think this is fair but only because of the other circumstances of our split.

It would be a very different story if my ex-wife had a career of her own, was able to offer a more even split of capital. Or on another extreme had to have the children a lot more (in which case maintenance wouldn't go up very much but her needs would, such are the vaguaries in our crappy CMS system) or exactly 50/50, in which case statutory maintenance would be zero. Of course then I would willingly pay more because I would have the capacity to do so without putting at risk my provision of the essentials to the children.

It will be the same for the OP. Look at the situation and try to be fair. If your ex has been extremely generous in the division of capital as I was, don't expect them to be able to stump up loads for clubs etc. On the other extreme, if it was 50/50 in the capital split, they ought to pay their fair share. Only you will really know what is fair in your circumstances though and I don't think you'll have much recourse in law. Most parents want to provide for their children when they can though (although this can be thorny too when one parent wants to carry on promising the children things that are no longer realistic when money is spread across two households).

Would child maintenance be classed as covering child clubs/activities?

The legal answer is "Yes"

Or would we look to split these as well as receiving CM?

Depends.

Make the split as amicable as possible so he feels like paying for the same things as you. Even then if one of you is the lower earner by over 5K it is better not to split it as one of you will find you can't afford the activities the other wants the kids to do.

My DP is actually the much lower earner so when he was asked for money for other stuff in his ex's time he said "No". His ex wasn't amicable either so he had no problem saying "No". However he will spend his own money doing and buying stuff for their child when their child is with him.

Forgot to add his own solicitor advised him to say "No" but for different reasons to the ones I've mentioned here.