Child maintenance - what is it for?

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My ex pays the child maintenance into a joint account that we have. We use that account for our child - clothing, school lunch money, clubs, etc. we used to do 50/50 so it worked ok.

But I am now the primary carer and child is only with dad for 8 overnights a month. I use the joint account to give pocket money, school lunch, clothing etc. My food bills, entertainment bills, etc are way higher now. I think I've messed up here because the CM money should have come directly to me. I take 200 a month out of the account to help with bills. The payment in is 600.

What is the CM money for and what about the 8 nights when child is with him. Holidays, day's out etc are getting very expensive as they eat adult sized meals. We used the online calculator to work out the payment. Father is well off, in new relationship (ie shared household bills) and can be quite tight. Just want to see how other people manage this.

The child maintenance should be paid directly to you if you have the child the majority of the time. Child maintenance in theory is for the day to day costs of bringing up a child, so yes that can be their food, uniform, shoes etc.

It’s for whatever I want to use it on for your child? I get £7 a week for 4 children and thats everything he needs to pay legally. Legally maintenance is all they need to pay and it’s your choice what you spend it on.

Child maintenance is his contribution to the costs that you incur while looking after your son during your time. He needs to pay the costs of seeing his son on top of the child maintenance amount.

Why was he paying maintenance if you had 50/50?

Surely you gave CMS the bank account for the payment to be made or is it an informal agreement that you have?

In all honesty, CM is a proportion of the non resident parent’s salary that the parent with care can spend on whatever they like (just ask Kyle Walker!). In general, no matter how much you get it, it rarely covers the costs of bringing up a child.

@Soldieringnonosoldiershere we both paid in what the calculator said when it was 50/50. It seemed like the easiest thing to do.

It's an informal arrangement not through CMS.

If you are not 50/50 anymore I would go back to the calculator, put in the number of days and see what it comes out as- then he should pay that directly to you.

If it was 50:50 care he shouldn’t ( based on cms) be paying any maintenance

now its not 50:50 use it to calculate a figure based on his 8 nights and get him to pay that. Any extras you’d need to agree between you

Why do you have a joint account though? This means you are still linked financially. You should look to sever that tie as it can have negative credit consequences.

To answer your question, maintenance can be used for whatever is needed for your child from housing, bills, food, clothing, etc.

It's for whatever the RP puts it towards, pref stuff that benefits the child but no issue if it's something like heating that has a dual benefit

Maintenance covers a roof over their head etc, it’s not just for items, entertainment etc. I’ve never heard of anyone doing it your way, why didn’t you just pick up your own costs when doing 50/50 and half for uniform etc? I’d change now it’s not 50-50 and he pays it directly to you, the way it’s intended.

What you should do is to close the joint account and arrange for the maintenance to be paid into your account. If he says no, just put a claim in.

My ex tried to argue that we should split the costs 50/50. I have ds 100% of the time - he didn't even pay for a sandwich last time he saw him. The reality is that it is based on his income (double mine) and he doesn't actually have a clue how much it costs to raise ds.

It goes towards food, bills, petrol, clubs, clothes etc and obviously doesn't touch the actual cost.

Can I just check - you both put in for costs when you had 50/50.

I assume now it's just him paying into this account?

The CMS calculator should tell you his contribution based on how many nights he has your child now. That money should go directly to you to pay for whatever is needed.