Child maintenance

[zelda579]

Can anybody shed a bit of light about child maintenance.
My ex believes if we share care 50/50 then no money needs to be paid?
I earn £25k a year he earns £55k.

Yes correct

Yes that's right because for 50% of the time you're both paying 100% of the costs children bring. Just because they earn more doesn't mean they then have to subsidise your life. It's clearly stated on the cm website.

That’s correct. 50/50 means no child maintenance. Also should “share” child benefit if more than 1 child ( claim for a child each) although perhaps in your case with him
being a higher earner, might not be worth him claiming.

One caveat to this is that you must share costs not just time 50:50. It can’t fall to one parent to buy all the clothes and pay for clubs, trips and whatever’s. So you must thrash out what this means. Because it could be doubly expensive for you if you don’t.

Use the child maintenance calculator on govt website don’t rely on MN. Where one person earns much more then usually some CM is payable even with 50:50. Also do a benefits calculator for you like entitledto. Make sure 50:50 means all childcare on that day not just nights. Don’t get stuck only being able to work school hours. And that 50:50 means school holidays, illness, snow days.

As PP have said..50/50 generally means that there is no child maintenance to be paid. That's if it is an exact 50/50 split. The dynamics of which can be difficult to manage. When my exdh and I first separated we agreed on 50/50 and there was no child maintenance. However we failed to grasp the smart details ( as PP have stated). So who has the children if they are poorly and it's a school day. For me, working from home, I ended up having the children for him, on his days so that he could work, same with any inset days and some bank holidays. Which doesn't sound a lot, and to be honest I didn't make a fuss over but..my youngest had a significant period of time off school due to an undiagnosed neurological condition. Due to the nature of our jobs, I ended up having my son at home for an extended period, we're talking months. Which of course, I'd have done in a heart beat anyway, but there talking about the financial imitations of this, I hit a brick wall. The goal posts continue to shift from my Exdhs perspective and he has dropped days as and when, and expected me to pick up alot of the flack. I have had to recently apply for maintenance ( at my own cost, granted only £20) and low and behold, this important job of his, he has resigned from in order to not have to pay! Be wary and get all your ducks in a row before agreeing to anything. Iron out the small details first.

Make sure he is paying 50% of costs if he isn't paying maintenance - uniforms, trips, activities, pocket money, phone, clothes etc

You don't need to split any universal credit you get, and there is little point in him trying to claim one of the child benefit allowances.

@JJ8765 income doesn't matter any more. If care is shared equally there is no cm to pay. It tells you that on the cm page. If care is really equal, the ex is already paying their half.

No CM if shared equally regardless of income.

This is incorrect advice. The gov calculator is a guide only. Where care is shared exactly 50/50, the CMS MUST make a nil assessment, irrespective of any significant disparity between the parents' incomes. However, where one parent earns e.g. £300k and the other earns e.g. £25k, it is possible to apply for a Schedule 1 top up order. If you're married, you may be entitled to spousal maintenance. But exactly 50/50 shared care will result in a nil assessment as the starting point.

I'm getting divorced currently and the above is the advice my lawyer gave me yesterday.