Advice on child maintenance

[mumof2222222222222222boys]

A friend has split up with the father of her children (5 and 7) and has asked me (am lawyer) for where to start with how much to ask for from her former partner for the children.

I may be a lawyer but have absolutely no clue. Presumably if it is amicable, you can just reach an agreement. I have no idea how much he earns - I would guess about £20k but I do know they have a lot of debts.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

The CSA used to have a calculator on the website, don't know if it is still there.

If they do not want to go the CSA route than they will prob go the financial mediation route with their solicitors.

BTW, I am not a legal bod at all, am just going by my experience of divorce and how the maths is done.

As far as I know, and I don't know if it still the same, if the mother is claiming benefits then the CSA have to be involved, regardless of whether an amicable private arrangement is made.

SR - that's actually not right, when I was on benefits XH had to provide a letter to say he was paying X amount each month to suffice the CSA being involved as we didn't want them involved. It's possible it's changed but I was on them until 10 months ago, (for a year)

Mum - when XH & I split up, he was on £25K p.a approx, and I recieve £300 per month from him for 1 DS, he also paid for my catalogue (had a new fridge freezer on there we'd only just brought) and he also paid for our joint debts as well.

Now i'm working I pay for the catalogue, but he pays the debts still.

I'm lucky he's forces so it will all change when he comes out & has to start paying for household bills, etc etc. but I think even so the CSA states he should be paying £250 ish.

What I would say is try not to go down the CSA route if possible. and also we looked at what XH's net money was, how much he thought he would need to live comfortably, and then we looked at what was left and basically that was what I had. (FWIW he has about £1000 p.m to himself each month after essential bills etc are paid out)

Thanks ladies.

I think what she wants is a starting point for negotiation but with a bit of justification behind it. I will check CSA website and see if that helps.

Anyone else out there?

Any thoughts from the Monday morning crowd?

starting point used to always be 20% of his net income (gross less tax, NI and pension contributions) for 2 children.
Allowances made for if he has DC more than 104 nights pa and for other situations ie if he then has more children.
Not looked at the CSA website for a long time but a lot of people seem to find it helpful