Child maintenance

[Bluebaron1]

Bit confused on the .gov calculator. I’ve entered my income and details etc and come up with a. Figure I should be paying.
however there is nowhere to enter my partners income I assume it only works if she is unemployed?
I’ve entered her details and she had to pay me!
Or do we do both and then take one from the other?
ideas?

Who has the child for the majority of the time? Or are you going for 50/50?

If 50/50 usually nothing to pay.

What is the childcare split in terms of overnights?

The devil is in the detail op

Is she the RP? And how many nights do you have your child? That is the key detail

Who do the children live with most of the time?

Of course it doesn’t “assume” she’s unemployed

it “assumes” the father would want to contribute to his child on the basis of his earnings

clearly not in your case

The gov calculator is pretty straightforward so I am not sure how you can be going wrong.

You fill it in as you, not your ex. Say how many nights kids will stay with you, your income, etc.

It tells you how much to pay.

I think even if the other parent earns more, if they’ve got the kids more than 50% of the time then you still pay based on your earnings. I think that’s how it works anyway although presumably there’s a point at which that becomes silly like if the resident parent is on £200K or something and the non resident parent earning £30K but maybe not!

Ok well we havnt really decided on custody yet so I entered me 3 nights and her 4 nights.
so I enter my details and get a figure to pay her.
if I enter her details she has to pay me.
so I guess it assume the other party has no income?

No it doesn’t assume anything of the sort

it is simple. The calculation is based on earnings of NRP and number of nights. It’s that simple.

Yes I thinks that’s it so even if she has the child 90% of the time and earns £100k she would still have to pay me money if I earn £10k?

No that's ridiculous.

If you have the child for 1 day out of 10 you need to pay maintenance to her for the 9 days she is looking after your kid by herself.

Using that calculation then.
assume 50/50 split of custody earning the same income then no maintenance would be due.

however I enter my income and 50% and have to pay her money. ( ie her income is discounted) hence my original post that she should enter her drains and we deduct one for the other?

In that case the figure is based on you paying her and then you get the fact you look after your child 3 nights into consideration

No 🤦‍♀️ it’s the opposite. Even if you earned £10K and she earned £100K but had the kids 90% of the time you would have to pay her! What the other person earns is irrelevant. It’s about paying what you can based on your salary towards kids that don’t live with you. Strewth!

No her earnings are shit all to do with it unless she is paying you.

If it is 50/50 then no one pays anyone

This is child maintenance right. For the child. It's not about you or her getting grabby with each other's income.

Ok I get it but that just sucks so a low income person would have to pay her ex husband who earns £200k a year money if he has more than 50% custody. Doesn’t seem fair to me?

That’s just how it is.
often the resident parent’s income and career progression will be affected by their childcare responsibilities and up to a certain age there will be high childcare costs they’d have to pay

It doesn't seem fair that they'd have to contribute towards their own children?

You can apply for a variation, but it would have to be pretty exceptional circumstances

@Bluebaron1 the principle is that if you are the NRP you contribute to the upbringing of your children proportional to your income regardless of the RPs income.

when you begin the calculation

do you select you are the NRP or RP?

It is the very first question

It doesn’t “suck” at all

I have a feeling your ex is in for a very difficult time with you

A thousand times this.