CMS

[Newfor2023]

I got divorced in May 2021.

My ex hadn’t worked for 5 years prior to our divorce and I had to give him a 7 figure lump sum and half of our home. Essentially half of what I had but more really, because I also had to agree to seek child maintenance.

We have 4 school aged kids who he sees but they don’t stay overnight (their choice and he doesn’t fight it).
I
agreed in the divorce contract not to seek child maintenance at the advice of my solicitor who told me I could after 12 months if I wanted to.

A few months ago - just before 12 months had passed since the divorce was finalised we sat down to discuss maintenance and he agreed to pay £1k a month for all 4 kids. He paid for two months, then dropped it to £333 (he said that was the amount the CMS said he should pay) and has just transferred £800 for August.

He’s sitting on £2m. It is literally just sitting in a bank account - he hasn’t invested it. He owns his home and he will likely never work.

is there any point me going via the CMS? I know they operate on income - and he has none.

I feel strongly he should not be able to on that amount of money without helping to financially support his children?

TYPO!!!! I had to agree NOT ago seek child maintenance….

What does the CMS say he should pay?

Why did you have to agree not to seek Child maintenance for a year.

I'm not sure the 2m in the bank account isn't a bit of a red herring

My understanding is that CMS calculate maintenance based on income and he doesn’t have any. Just capital.

His solicitors asked for the no maintenance to be claimed clause and mine recommended I go along with it for speed whilst advising me it would become irrelevant after 12 months anyway. They also told me it would be nigh on impossible to get money out of him via the CMS if he wasn’t earning. which he is unlikely to, ever.

I believe I can when I get their initial assessment of nil or whatever it is, I can ask for special circumstances to be considered - i.e. they take his assets and capital into consideration but I’m unsure how much of a difficult or lengthy process this is. If it’s even worth it…

I don’t understand your last comment.

The detail in your post doesn't make sense.

You shared half the marital assets, leaving you each with approximately £2M, and you say you were advised not to agree CM within your consent order, despite knowing that the father was unemployed.

Why would the court award him 50% of assets if you are the parent with full care and there appeared to be zero chance of him paying CM.

One of the things about online queries is people fudge the information they give and that leads to things not making sense to someone who deals with this type of thing every day...and that means no one is going to be able to give you any kind of sensible guidance.

See a solicitor.

Sorry more typos! Juggling children this afternoon.

I had a pre-nup. Hence the settlement. I knew I would have to give him the cash. Having to buy him out of the house was a surprise.
He isn’t unemployed, he just doesn’t work. He did when we first married and when the pre nup was drawn up.

I’ll go back to my lawyers as you suggest.

Surely income includes returns on investments such as interest. Ergo he does have income albeit probably not via PAYE. Ask CMS to access his self assessment

Why on earth did you sign a pre-nup? I thought, however, that they weren’t legally binding in the UK?
Anyway, if you have 2M sitting in the bank like he does, I’m sure you don't need the actual maintenance, but agree it would annoy the heck out of me if I were you and he didn't contribute. I have to say, it sounds like your lawyer wasn’t the best one you could have had!

Ask to see the income from his invested £2m

I don’t think he has investments but yes, there should be interest.

I think I’ve found an organisation called NACSA who might be able to guide me through this.

Thank you.

At the time of our marriage 15 yrs ago I was significantly more wealthy than him and was bullied into a pre-nup by my father. I shouldn’t have bothered - it left me worse off - I wasn’t nearly as wealthy by the time of our divorce. The legally
binding thing - they def weren’t when mine was drawn up - I believe to all intensive purposes they are now.

You can also ask for a mandatory consideration that his lifestyle is clearly beyond his financially declared means.

If he keeps the £2m in a bank account (not working for him) then the CMS can, on your application for a variation, assume a rate of return of 8% on that £2m, which will mean he'll be assumed to earn £160k gross. This would make him pay the max assessment. Get the CMS involved today.