Child Maintenance on divorce

[BelleCurve]

Quick question - I am doing a DIY divorce, so far everything has been reasonably amicable - DS's Dad has paid the maintenance I asked for via the Child Maintenance Options calculator.

I want to formalise this in the statement of arrangement for children, but need to factor in something for a periodic review - what if he changes job/hours etc.

Does anyone know how best to phrase this?

*also posted in the divorce topic. Thanks

The Statement of Arrangements is just a statement of the arrangements at the time of divorce so the court can ensure that adequate arrangements are in place for the children. It isn't legally binding and parents aren't expected to adhere to the arrangements when circumstances change.

If you want an agreement about changes to contact and living arrangements you could agree a parenting plan. There are various ones floating about but the one available from the Scottish Government website is quite good. You can agree when the children stay are to stay with each parent, a reasonable amount of notice to give for changing arrangements, when their should be a review etc. A parenting plan or agreement isn't legally binding but many parents find it helps discussing the issues and having them written down.

Child maintenance may be agreed as part of the overall financial settlement on divorce. Maintenance in a consent order can be a fixed amount or rise with inflation. Otherwise you get into all kinds of problems such as defining income, determining how it is verified and by whom, whether there should be a review if so when etc etc. When the reams of child support legislation are considered it is easy to understand why it is impossible to cover every situation without leaving a loophole. When a child maintenance agreement is included in a consent order it is enforceable but either party may apply to the CSA 12 months after the date of the order and the order will cease to have any effect a couple of months later.

It's also possible to make a private agreement. This can be binding and may be enforced through the small courts if it is worded well. There is an example on Resolution's (the family lawyers' organisation) website. The same difficulties with the wording as consent orders applies.

Thanks for this. I will keep it as a fixed amount in the SoA.