Ex husband refusing to uplift Child Maintenance

[Florence1981]

Divorced 3 years ago. We agreed a fixed monthly amount for my 9 year old child maintenance with a yearly uplift corresponding to retail price index. This was part of the consent order and therefore approved by the judge. The document clarifying the process of yearly uplifts has a warning saying that if you do not comply you may be held to be in contempt of court.
He never complied although he has always paid the initial amount. I asked him to comply and pay back the shortfall but to no avail.
I do not believe the CMS were ever involved as it was an amicable private and legal agreement.
What should be my next step to force him to comply with the legal document he signed?
Thank you so much.

If it's in the Consent Order l think that only lasts one year anyway in regards to child maintenance.

Did you both agree an Undertaking that you'd abide by the consent order for as long as maintenance was required? If so l think you'd have to take him back to court for breaching the Order.

If you didn't take an Undertaking, and the CMS calculations would work out more, l think you can go to them

It really depends what was written in your Consent Order.

Consent order usually only applies for 12 months when it comes to CMS.

Why not just go through CMS?

It depends. If your exH earns above CMS threshold - you could try to go to court and enforce the arrears, and try to demand he signs the Undertaking mentioned above.
It’ll cost you court fees and you’ could self represent to save solicitor fees.

If, however, he is within CMS threshold, and is paying above what he’d be legally liable - I’d leave it be. As he can simply demand CMS determination and would stick with that -
as is his right.

Thank you for the replies. I do not understand what an "undertaking" is, apologies. The document I have has no title but says " in the family court". And "order made by sitting in private". It looks pretty official and has a case number. It can't be for just one year as it explains the process of updating the agreed maintenance amount every year based on RPI for the past year. He pays just under £700/month my, 1 child who is 9.
The risk with the CMS is that amount could end up less, he earns around £100k.
We had no involvement with the CMS so far I don't think. Are they helpful?
Sorry this is all very confusing and I am a bit lost.

Personally... if l was getting £700 for one child I'd not try for more especially if there was a risk of getting less via CMS.

To get definite answers you'll have to contact your solicitor

If there’s only one child and he’s on £100k it will not end up being less than £700 (isn’t it about £900?)

After 12 months the family court has no jurisdiction over child maintenance. So you can go to cms ( so can he)
the risk is it will be a straight calc which might be less based on earnings less pension and number of nights calc, could also be more

Sorry, how am I JUST hearing about this one year thing?

@BobLemon it applies to any Consent Order made after 3 March 2003. See here: www.ellisonssolicitors.com/news/child-maintenance-and-the-12-month-rule/

And the arrears over 12 months thing!!

@Florence1981

You can easily do a check on CMS website and see how much he’d have to pay given his salary and split of time your child spends with him.

But £100K - he is firmly in CMS jurisdiction. So - the official looking document from Judge is only enforceable for 12 months. After that - your ex has full right to apply to CMS himself and lower his monthly payments.

if he hasn’t done that - i’d not risk angering him and making him go that way.

The court may enforce the past arrears of inflation indexing - but in the end you’ll lose - as ex will lower his payments and that will be a lot more over the years.
And court is not free anyway - making any gains even smaller