Child Maintenance query.

[Lll898]

Hi not sure if any can offer some advice.

I am a mum who pays child maintenance for my oldest who lives with dad whilst my younger two live with me. Older son shared care but classed as live with dad.

I have had my annual leave review today and my payment has gone down, where I don't feel it should have.

Last year I was made redundant and uploaded my redundancy letter and my payments stopped I was expecting to pay the minimum a week but assured no payment is due.
Started a new Job uploaded all to the portal which restarted payments at a lower rate than before redundancy due to salary little lower I was promoted three months in, uploaded new salary payment went up and have been paying this amount for last 6-7 months no arrears on account.

My payment has gone down to lower than 7 months ago so I enquired to why and surely I should be paying the value for my new salary not a figure that is no longer relevant, was told to pay the amount as the account had full review and should salary change plus 25% to declare on portal, but my salary is higher than the 25% shown but I have been told this has been calculated for the review.

I don't want to get into arrears etc and I know my ex husband will kick off he did when I was made redundant.

Any advice on what to do please?

Is there a reason you have a formal arrangement? I ask because if you’re relationship with your ex was good you could just explain the situation to them and pay more directly to him.

Can you not bank the extra amount you think you should be paying in case arrears become due?

I think the risk of a private arrangement is that any payments made under the private arrangement will be completely irrelevant if arrears are subsequently deemed due. So you’d be paying twice. If that concerns you, then I’d just keep contacting the CMS to get them to amend the amount. If that doesn’t work, go to your MP and ask them to intervene. It will be a refreshing change for them to work on a case where someone wants to pay more but is being frustrated in doing so 😂

Unfortunately a private agreement would not work.
Went through a vicious divorce, he cheated and thought saying sorry would fix it, when I refused to try again, some how I was the one in the wrong.
So we have not been on great terms since the affair came out. And in a very weird way him more angry than me.

But will be putting the additional aside, i have been informed by a friend wait a month and try updating details.

I have read some horror stories online regarding arrears that come out of the blue etc, so trying to say firmly away from this path.

That sounds fair (of you, not him). Also much sympathy, it’s not easy dealing with this sort of situation and I fully understand why you wouldn’t want an informal arrangement.