Maintenance payments reducing

[Hueandcry]

Wonder if anyone cab help. Exh pays maintenance for 2 ds to me through an informal agreement. Ds1 is at Uni & moving out in August so exh wants to reduce maintenance to me & pay money direct to DS. I dont have an issue with that but DS2 is still at home & he wants to half the payments. Not sure that's right & I can't find anything online.

How old is DS2. Is he still in full time education?

Child maintenance stops when I child finishes A levels so if your EX wants to pay any maintenance directly to that child he can.

How old is the other child? He should continue to pay maintenance to you. You can calculate the amount on the CMS calculator (available online).

If you use the CMS calculator, child maintenance for 2 kids isn't double the maintenance for 1 kid. He should pay you the maintenance for 1 child and the difference between 2 kids and 1 kid should go to dc1. (I'm assuming dc1 will return home for holidays etc)

As another poster said, CM is not calculated as 50% for one child and 50% to another, so it shouldn't drop by half.

Ds2 is 16 & going to college in September. No A levels here in Scotland. Tried the calculator but as I don't know exhs salary it's a bit difficult. Even at a conservative estimate he's been underpaying for years

If this is going to cause you and your children to have financial difficulties then it might be a good idea to make it a formal arrangement to ensure that you and your children are getting at least what you are entitled to.

Would it be good for you to go through cms? They could find his salary through HMRC.

It will definitely cause financial difficulties

The CMS can find out his salary, start there if he won’t have a reasonable conversation about it.