Child maintenance

[TigerWhiskers]

It's not cost effective for me to use a solicitor to act on my behalf to negotiate the finance split with my STBX as the money we would be quibbling over would just end up being spent on legal fees rather than going direct to me. I am paying for legal advice for the financial split but not to represent me.

Child maintenance though...I had thought we'd do it through the child maintenance service but if we can agree to a figure (or calculation) ourselves...what are the pros and cons of using it?

And does anyone know what percentage the CM calculator works out the payments are in relation to his salary? and is it based on his previous years salary? Or quarterly, monthly or what?

Thanks

You can run the figures through their website easily and it’ll give you a number based on how many overnights he’ll have them. Use that as a starting point.

Yeah I have but what's the percentage they use?. I want to understand it as we will probably use the calculation but not use the system.

The calculator doesn't say if it goes off the last year's salary or the last month's salary etc.

It's around 12% annual salary and the payment is reviewed annually. Mine is around September time each year.

www.gingerbread.org.uk/find-information/money/child-maintenance/using-cms/

Does this help? The rate used will depend on his income as well as he lives with any other children, with a deduction for overnights either him.,

To OP

The benefit of CMS is that it's binding and they have various means to collect amounts not paid. It can be arranged by phone, but before calling make sure you have details such as:

Full name of ex
Date of birth
Address
National Insurance number would be a big help

CMS initial assessment is usually made from the paying parent's P60 or latest HMRC tax return. If your ex is PAYE employed it should be a simple exercise. However, if they are self employed or operate through a limited company, there are several ways they can attempt to mislead the CMS.

Good luck