question about child maintenance payments

[catkin14]

please can someone tell me who decides child maintenance payments in divorce?
my DC lives with me fulltime, his df sees him once every 2-3 weeks for about 2 hours, his choice.

STBExh is trying to get out of full payment for DC, even though he is a high earner and can easily afford the payments.
I am pretty sure if I go to CSA they will sort this out but he is telling me his solicitor says he doesnt have to pay that much.
Is this true?

If you go to the CSA he will have to pay 15% of his net income. They can take it directly from his earnings via his employer if he refuses to pay.

so his solicitor cannot determine what he pays?

Ha. Nope.

It boggles my mind that some men don't want to help provide for their offspring, its so morally wrong!!

me too. Thanks for help. CSA here I come.

Before going to the CSA have a word with your solicitor. Your husband may be correct about not having to pay as much if he is self employed and child maintenance is calculated only against his taxable profits. Also perhaps he earns more than the CSA capped amount and it would be better to include child maintenance as part of the overall divorce settlement.

Sorry I was in a rush this morning and if your husband is making mortgage payments it would be another reason why he doesn't need to pay so much. Under CSA rules an initial CSA calculation can be be varied downwards to take account of special expenses the non resident pays such as mortgage payments on the home where the parent with care and children live.

Rather than involving the CSA which can cause a lot of bad feeling and unnecessary hassle (plus in the future the CSA will introduce charging for applications and collecting maintenance) it is usually better to go through the finances for children together and negotiate an agreement which can work for your family. If then you don't want to rely on an informal agreement child maintenance can be included in a consent order settling the finances on divorce.

Be very careful about advice on the internet. People may have good intentions but every case is different and their circumstances are unlikely to be the same as yours.

Thanks for that.
He is not self employed and there is no mortgage.

He has agreed amount to pay but will not pay it.
We are likely to have to go to court to sort finances as he will not agree on those, would the court also sort out the child maintenance payments?

No. The courts do not have jurisdiction to resolve child maintenance disputes. I agree with STIDW that it is better to resolve this between you but if that isn't possible your only option is the CSA.

Sorry, yes, agree with babybarrister. For some reason I got the impression your ex's income wasn't that high. Not sure where I got that from.

As above the courts don't usually have jurisdiction to settle child maintenance disputes but if you are going to court anyway child maintenance can still be kept on the agenda and negotiated. Most cases settle during proceedings and when agreement for child maintenance is reached it can be included in an order "by consent."

Of course in the meantime you could be left struggling financially and then you may be better off applying to the CSA because claims for back payments from before the date of the application cannot be made. However the CSA calculation is based on a capped amount of £2k net per week. If "higher earner" means your husband earns more than that the court can order top up payments.