Child maintenance overtime

[Mummabear173]

Hi all
i am looking for a bit of support. I am a single mother who is now looking to claim Child maintenance for my baby. The father does overtime and additional hours/bank holidays, unsocial hours as he is in the police.
He is saying that his overtime/additional hours is not guaranteed so it won’t be taken into account but for as long as I have known him he has always done extra hours and overtime so would this not be classed as guaranteed as it’s been over 3 months? I’ve had a look online and it says overtime is included but doesn’t mention anything about if it’s not guaranteed. I was told by someone that they look at his earnings for the previous/current tax year so that would reflect more than his basic pay.
any help would be massively appreciated. Thank you!

Glenroy can you post on your own post you started.

If you do a private arrangement and work out all the yearly rate of pay and put it in to the councils child maintenance then it will just be the yearly amount and overtime will not be added. If you go through CSA then overtime is added as it adds in the amount he makes over the year or the past 2 months and works out the amount he is to pay for the year. I am going through a similar situation with my ex wife. Please think about if he has any other children as it only calculates a deduction for the other children which is not yours and does not take in to account how often that other children stay with the ex partner for. My eldest is staying with me a lot more now and CSA do not care if the other parent has an extra mouth to feed for more days which is not on the case file for your children. To be honest overtime should never be included in to the child maintenance calculations as it takes away money that we could use on our children when they come to stay with us. I know nothing of your ex partner of how he is with the kids but it kills me when I can’t buy things or take my kids out for day trips due to me having to pay above and beyond to my ex partner. Before anyone starts to come at me I work full time, I see my kids who is on my case file with CSA 2 - 3 times a week (sometimes more depending if it’s holidays or not) they also stay over with me as well and I would have them stay over more if I could but my ex wife says they are too young which I think is a load of bull. I also help cover the costs of school uniforms, birthday parties for my kids so I am contributing more than my fair share. I have also bought things for her place when she has needed them and given her and the kids lifts when I had my car to places SHE needed to go not where the kids needed to go. I also take my kids on day trips out and even pay for yearly passes which I have given my ex to use when I am not using it so she can take my kids to fun things as well. My eldest stays over with me a lot when I don’t have my other kids so that’s more food/snacks having to pay for plus day trips here and there. In my situation because of CSA I have had to get rid of my car and sell other things just to survive and pay for even food for my kids. So please really go in to a private arrangement rather than CSA as they only care about the person receiving the money and don’t give a damn about the other person who could be majorly struggling to even afford to pay to do anything with their kids. If he doesn’t have any other kids and just paying for yours and is majorly doing well for himself and only just gives maintenance and doesn’t really spend on the kids then yeah go through CSA as I believe dads should contribute towards the kids even if an agreement is in place private or not even though I do not agree with them adding in overtime especially when it is not guaranteed.