Agreeing child maintenance payment as part of the divorce?

[Angeldelight21]

Hi mums,

My soon ex to be husband suggested to fix a child maintenance payment as part of the divorce. Is it something people do? Our daughter has just turned 2.

TIA

Use the CMS calculator. If he gets a pay rise your CMS should go up too. You need to check out CMS payment calculator. If it was part of divorce you should insist upon percent rather than fixed amount.

Any child maintenance payment written into a consent order as part of divorce can be stopped after a year so its better to go via cms.

Plus if he is suggesting it I'm guessing he's trying to protect himself in the future event of a payrise against having to pay more money

depends what he wants; 50 50 less or more

This. My ex threatened to stop mine (agreed in the Consent Order). CMS advised it had nothing to do with them and I'd have to go through the court if I wanted to make him pay. In the end he continued supporting his children but I'd be wary of this is I were you

Can I ask, if agreed in the Consent order but he stops paying it, can I then go through CMS? Or I need to take him to the court instead?

You’d need to take it to cms. Courts don’t have jurisdiction to enforce child maintenance as part of divorce-unless it’s a global maintenance ( combination of child and spousal)

.you can also do a private arrangement between you ) many of my friends do) but if you think he won’t pay etc then I’d suggest this isn’t the way for yiu.

have you looked at cms to see what he would be assessed at having to pay ?

You ll definitely need maintenance and it's all the better if he agrees in principle. However a 2y costs are different to a 10/16/20y child. CMS is a good start but at least build in a yearly review or unforeseen circumstances arrangement.

CMS is your guaranteed basic but it has limitations. For example it is only payable until 18 or the child leaves FT education. So you won’t receive it when the child is at university. Which might be a problem if they and your other children are still dependent on you for housing. This is why some people do their own agreement. But you are taking a gamble on your ex sticking with it and continuing to earn well.

The safety net is you can revert to CMS or go back to court. Nought you can do if they stop earning for whatever reason.