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Child maintenance for adult child and consent order

4 replies

CandyLeBonBon · 03/12/2021 11:48

Can anyone offer any insight?

My high earning exH has been paying £1200 a month since we separated in 2009 and has stayed the same in spite of his increased salary around £90k)

We have a consent order signed in 2019 in which he agreed to support our 3 children until age 21 or they start working full time or go to uni, whichever is sooner.

My eldest is 19 and autistic and deemed to have a limited capability for work by DWP. My other children are 16 and 13.

He recently accused me of controlling him snd manipulating the children to get information about him (I don't and haven't) and now refuses to communicate in any form. He refuses to collect the kids from the house when he sees them. They have chosen to avoid seeing him because they find him dismissive, emotionally absent and they find him difficult to communicate with, so haven't spent much time with him recently. I have always encouraged a relationship.

Yesterday I found thst he has reduced maintenance payments by £400 without any discussion.

I think a consent order is only enforceable for maintenance for 12 months, but as my eldest son is likely to be at home for a good while longer and has limited earning capacity at the moment, is this worth taking to court over?

I'm not sure if there is anything I can do? He's sprung it on me with no notice and I rely on that at the moment. I do work full time and the kids are with me 99% of the time. I do all medical/therapy/financial appointments with my eldest son and act as advocate for him with admin/financial matters etc, so a fair bit of extra work on top of my job.

I have politely asked to talk about his decision via text/email but he is stonewalling me.

Does anyone have any understanding of where I stand legally? Is it worth pursuing or do I just need to suck it up and get a second job?

If anyone has any advice or insight I'd be really grateful.

Yesterday I di

OP posts:
CandyLeBonBon · 03/12/2021 20:19

Bump

OP posts:
Collaborate · 04/12/2021 08:56

He can only get out of the consent order by applying to CMS, so if the child is too old for CMS the consent order still stands. It stands until the CMS accept jurisdiction.

Muchmorethan · 06/12/2021 20:57

I have a similar setup. My XH has agreed a set monthly amount for as long as our DS is financially dependent on me.

It is written in the Consent Order and we also took Undertakings agreeing that we wouldn't go through CMS and would stick to this agreement

gogohm · 06/12/2021 21:14

I have a spousal maintenance agreement for support for as long as dd is dependent on me - she's autistic so not straightforward

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