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Original poster

Child maintenance

27 replies

Cakequeen1988 · 03/05/2022 21:25

I was allocated child maintenance by the CMS. My ex asked for a mandatory reconsideration and again was told to pay.

he is now taking them to court, he has told me he will be seeking all paid maintenance back from me if he wins.

does anyone know if he can do this? I’m really worried. I have accepted and spent that money as the CMS stated I was entitled to it.

any help/advice gratefully recieved

OP posts:
LaurieFairyCake · 03/05/2022 21:32

Nah, he's just a prick

Crazyhousewife · 03/05/2022 21:33

He can only get the money back if he is proven not to be the father of the child otherwise he has to pay. He won’t get far in court and he will still have more money to pay back to you in arrears as well as having court fees to pay. The most he can do is ask them to reduce the amount but he would have to provide evidence as to why they should and it would only be going forward on future payments. My ds dead beat dad has tried everything in the book and now has it come directly off his wages. Child maintenance is in with departments of dwp from what I understand so they can’t be fobbed off anymore.

Original poster
Cakequeen1988 · 03/05/2022 21:42

He has 50:50 care and this has been taken into consideration in what he has to pay (it’s noted on the paperwork.) but I’m worried that not only could I lose the CMS but that I could have to take on solicitors fees if he tries to take a civil case against me!

OP posts:
Crazyhousewife · 04/05/2022 12:24

He can’t take it against you and this has been decided by cms not you. They are enforcing it and it seems his argument is with them. I think he will find when he tries to take them to court a solicitor will explain what little rights he has in the matter. It sounds like the calculation was correct and it was to provide for his child. I would keep receipts in case he does decide to then turn it round and say you aren’t spending it on the child but I honestly don’t think he will even get to court

c3pu · 04/05/2022 12:27

Was the maintenance calculated before the 50/50 arrangement began? Or is there arrears that he needs to clear?

Usually if the care is 50/50 there is no maintenance payable.

Aimee1987 · 04/05/2022 12:29

c3pu · 04/05/2022 12:27

Was the maintenance calculated before the 50/50 arrangement began? Or is there arrears that he needs to clear?

Usually if the care is 50/50 there is no maintenance payable.

This.
If you share equal care of the child then he doesnt pay child maintenance any more than you pay him child maintenance

Crazyhousewife · 04/05/2022 12:30

Sometimes you get a small amount as 50/50 tends to go on nights stayed there but if mum is main carer and dads collecting after school mum may be doing school meals, uniform and cover a lot more costs then dad especially if mum is weekends too. It’s a constant argument that crops up on cms pages as many can’t decide whether a payment should be due or not

Aimee1987 · 04/05/2022 12:34

If hes going to court to prove that he does 50 % of the care for the child then he is correct that he doesnt have to pay maintence. So not as clear cut as he will be laughed out of court.
I'm not sure if he can claim the payments already paid.

Lou98 · 04/05/2022 13:01

If he has 50/50 custody then he may have a case for not paying you CM.

However, the court wouldn't make you pay this back as it was CMS that were enforcing it and collecting the money. As far as I'm aware the court case would be between him and them, not you.

Be prepared though that you may lose the CM in the future

Collaborate · 04/05/2022 14:00

The CMS have many cases like this, and they are accounting for an incresing proportion of my workload.

The CMS are saying it isn't shared care because that is what you are telling them. Therefore it is down to you if a Tribunal finds that no maintenance is payable, and you will have to repay it all.

2boysDad · 04/05/2022 16:54

Do you think he would be agreeable to your contacting the CMS and informing them that no maintenance is payable but then asking him to agree to not try and claim back any money paid so far?

It would save on his legal costs and the stress of going to court and you would then both know where you stand.

zaffa · 04/05/2022 19:18

So we have experience of such a situation. DH had 50/50 care of DSS but also had to pay CMS (despite paying for full everything when he was with us - uniform, after school care etc). He was then made redundant so stopped paying, and then made a huge career change so he went to work at a significantly lower paid role. However the CMS used his last salary to reinstate the repayments and he paid at the higher rate for three months before he could get them to accept the £30k pay cut. (We weren't taking any chances of paying less until they told us to).
The amount that he had already paid was more than the amount he had to pay for the whole year, so he didn't pay anything further that year, but he wasn't entitled to the overpayments back. I don't know if they would have carried forward into the following year as DSS moved in full time so CMS agreed we didn't have to pay anything further (although also said there was no point making a claim against his ex for future CMS as we couldn't evidence if she had a job or not or how much it paid....)

zaffa · 04/05/2022 19:20

Collaborate · 04/05/2022 14:00

The CMS have many cases like this, and they are accounting for an incresing proportion of my workload.

The CMS are saying it isn't shared care because that is what you are telling them. Therefore it is down to you if a Tribunal finds that no maintenance is payable, and you will have to repay it all.

The CMS told DH that as his ex claimed the child benefit she was considered the main carer and so he had to pay her CMS - he could evidence school meals / uniforms etc but they didn't care

Collaborate · 04/05/2022 19:29

zaffa · 04/05/2022 19:20

The CMS told DH that as his ex claimed the child benefit she was considered the main carer and so he had to pay her CMS - he could evidence school meals / uniforms etc but they didn't care

Show quote history

The CMS often get this wrong.

IstayedForTheFeminism · 04/05/2022 19:32

I thought cms could still be payable in cases of 50/50 care where 1 parent was a much higher earner than the other?

Pompom2367 · 04/05/2022 19:34

He may win in court op as it's 50/50 shared care

zaffa · 04/05/2022 19:35

@Collaborate what do you do in that situation? Can you force a reconsideration? DH asked for a recalculation and they just dismissed it as they said he had no new evidence

Collaborate · 04/05/2022 19:41

zaffa · 04/05/2022 19:35

@Collaborate what do you do in that situation? Can you force a reconsideration? DH asked for a recalculation and they just dismissed it as they said he had no new evidence

If there is equal shared care he needs to appeal to the first tier tribunal after the CMS has refused a mandatory reconsideration.

toddlingabout · 04/05/2022 20:00

This should help explain it... www.nacsa.co.uk/equal-shared-care

Nat6999 · 04/05/2022 20:08

He isn't taking them to court, he is appealing to tribunal which isn't court, it will take at least a year to get a hearing, chances are he won't win so try to not worry, he is chancing his luck.

zaffa · 04/05/2022 21:14

Thanks @Collaborate. It's no longer an issue as we now have full time care and he only sees his mother every second or third weekend, but it's interesting to know the correct process as he was so flummoxed by their response to him.

Skeptadad · 04/05/2022 21:37

My ex has done this.

we have 50/50 shared care and I earn a lot of money. She keeps sending CMS bank statements.

Where is the sense of personal pride and responsibility to say we have 50/50 shared care and I’m going to feel entitled to your earnings too:

I feel sorry for OPs ex who should never have been paying and has been losing money. OP should never have taken it.

Lou98 · 04/05/2022 22:08

@Nat6999 they have 50/50 custody, there's every chance he might win. It's also hardly 'chancing his luck' when he's been paying CM even though they split custody evenly. Presumably he pays for everything when the kids are with him 50% of the time

StuckInTheMiddleOfNowhere · 09/05/2022 18:39

If its exactly 50 50 so equal nights he shouldn't have to pay and rightly so.

Now im a receiving parent we don't have 50 50 but if we did id never expect him to pay anything.

Dh pays his ex for his dc. She tried every trick in the book to get more. He originally paid her 200 pm MORE than he ' needed' she kept on at CMS despite him paying extra. And in the end he paid the figure they said to the penny so she shit out on that extra for being so bloody greedy. He saves in an isa the difference for dsc.

Skeptadad · 09/05/2022 19:42

Yep, same here StuckInTheMiddleOfNowhere.

I told my ex if business went well I would consider a voluntary payment to improve quality of life at her house for daughter. Ex couldn't resist CMS/game playing so no bueno, Ex should have known it was true as I made payments into her bank account voluntarily as soon as she left and historically made over payments.

Right now there's no voluntary quality of life improvement payment just a sustenance payment if she can't afford food/heating.

Often it's wise not to bite the hand that feeds. Most parents want the best for their children but there's a limit to most peoples endurance.

Daughter will have everything she will ever need at mine.

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