No maintenance- won’t communicate

[Glittersparkles28]

My poor friend is at her wits end. After finally being brave enough to leave her awful husband, divorce finalised last summer and used her house sale money towards a shared ownership house for her and her 3 children of which the 2 youngest shared with ex. Court order in place for him to pay maintenance but having losing his 6 figure salary job during probation period (could’ve been deliberate or could’ve been him being a lazy feckless wonder) means he’s not paid a penny. He’s gone back to his parents with his £70k sale proceeds and still remains unemployed.

What can she do? She’s spoken to CMS numerous times and after most recent call they asked her to show solicitors completion statement evidencing split of house sale proceeds. She was then told his assets were under the threshold. She asked CMS have they investigated fully or just taken his word and they were not forthcoming and said she can appeal.

She’s working 3 minimum wage jobs and just registered for her local food bank.

Ex refuses to engage at any level and tells the kids he has no money. Should also say he’s moved nearly an hour’s drive away so also complains to the children they cost him money in fuel.

Are there any other avenues she can try with regards maintenance?

I’ve known him for a lot longer than she has and whilst he also treated his first ex wife appallingly he did pay maintenance for their child.

I’ve said she’s to keep on at the cms but I don’t know what/if she can do anything else.

Any tips would be appreciated!

Hmm does the court order state a figure of maintenence he has to pay or is it stated that he has to pay whatever the CMS calculation is? CMS will only calculate the 'unearned income' from those assets so if he was receiving interest or rental income from them they would class that as income. (Which is very frustrating and likely to be a small amount). If he really is unemployed and it's showing on hmrc that he has no income there's not much you can do through CMS. You could try a letter from her solicitor outlining he has 70,000 in savings and that he has a legal obligation to pay maintenence. Does she agree to the child contact he wants? Do the children want to spend time with him?

My xh quit his job during our divorce, going from a 6 figure salary to bank of mum and dad. Not only did he get more than me from the divorce settlement, he also had to pay no maintenance as he had no income. If he'd claimed benefits, he'd have had to at least pay a nominal amount. He managed 6 years before getting another job. Your friend has my sympathy, it was the most rage inducing situation I have ever been in.

I'm absolutely flabbergasted that men would give up a large salary and choose to live in poverty with their parents to avoid giving their children a better life. Disgusting!

She is really wasting her time and energy to try to get reasonable CMS from someone without a job and a limited amount of capital. There will always be a nominal calculation so she can keep it open. But if money is tight there is no point wasting it on a legal action that is toothless.

A quick google will get her information on how the CMS can identify maintenance based on capital. There are thresholds for this and lots of exclusions. It sounds like this has been explored and CMS think his capital is below the threshold. I’m sure this is less than 70k but he might have spent or used a lot of this already.

TBH the calculation of income from capital of 70k would be really small. I think they assume 8% return as an income. Which works out at a few £ per week CMS. Like I said she can Google all of this to work out if any of this is worth it.

But I would guess he is able to show he has spent most of it in living costs by now.

Thanks everyone. He was unemployed by the time the Court order was issued and I think it says CMS calculation.

He has bare minimum contact EOW which is his choice and by all accounts grandparents do the parenting. They’re in their 80s and frail. Her youngest sent my friend a pic of his dad last weekend asleep on the sofa which sums up his parenting ability. Kids never want to go and cry about it which makes her feel terrible but them being with him means she can work long days on overtime.

She’s been to the food bank and met someone there who was able to help her with what benefits she can claim.

I’m sorry for you all having to deal with these deadbeat dads. I can’t believe that aged 50 he is going to live long term with his parents to avoid paying maintenance for his own children.

I will pass all this info on and thank you again.