Child Maintenance - Shared Care

[IIISILVERFOXIII]

Hi All,

I hope you are all well! First time post!

Need a bit of advice on child maintenance if that's ok?

I used to have my little girl 1 night one week and 2 nights the next.

That was until Feb when she lived with me for 65 nights full time/ 7 days per week from Feb to April as her mum was going through some personal issues.

She moved back to her mums in April and we have agreed she will stay with me 3 nights per week from now on.

I also have her for 21 nights in summer holidays and Christmas so approximately 205 out of 365 nights.

I have been told now though that I will have to pay £42 per week child maintenance for her? How is this possible?

In terms of shared care/ responsibilities I do school runs/ doctors (if she's with me) as she stays with me Thursday after school until Sunday early evening. I also buy her clothes, pay for her hair and take her on holidays along with all of the other things I'm supposed to do.

I just get told my child maintenance services it's because her mum receives the child benefit?

Any advice would be appreciated

3 nights a week would not quite be 50:50, hence maintenance being due (I work it out to be 177 nights per year so not quite 50:50). However, £42 per week sounds quite high for one child and that level of shared care but obviously dependent on what you earn. It would be worth putting the figures into the calculator online and checking the right bands, etc have been used.

With regards paying for holidays, clothes, etc on top that is how it should work, the same as her mum is responsible for that on her time and maintenance payments allow for that. Basically any maintenance should literally cover the imbalance between access days so the £42 should cover 1/2 of the extra day your ex has her. Like I said, it sounds high but depends on earnings.

Have you put your details into the CMS calculator. And seen what that amounts too?

You are a parent you should be providing things your child needs when they are with you. Im doing it all single handedly like many others. Without any emotional. Practical or financial support from the other parent.

Hi Both and thanks for your comments.

It's just a little bit difficult to get my head around the fact she's been with me for three months (7 days per week) with no financial support from her mum, then 3 nights per week moving forward as well as the additional days in summer holidays and Christmas and they say I still have to pay? I worked it out as her being with me 56% of the year so are they basing their calculations from now onwards?

How much do you earn compared to her mum?

I think the three months she was with you will be irrelevant if the case has only just been opened, they only consider the arrangements from that point onwards.

I don't know what her mum earns to be honest.

Even from this point onwards there's 221 days left in 2021 and my daughter will be with me for 117 of them?

I just don't get it 😂

It's really simple. CMS does not backdate payments or calculations. They are calculating from the day of the claim. That's the same for everyone.

Her clothes, hair and holidays are things you would buy for your daughter anyway, so not sure why that is an issue?

Child benefit is £21 a week, so it covers school lunch plus maybe a set of school uniform, one pair of school shoes and some stationary each year. It goes nowhere.

Raising a child is costly.

Put it through the Child maintenance calculator online and see what it comes out with.

In theory, if you are a high earner the reason you would still pay maintenance is so that your daughter could have the same quality of life that she has with you on the days she is with her mum also.

You can ask for a special circumstance (you have more that 50% access) to be considered as well.

Ultimately, I think if I were your and having my daughter more than 50% of the time, I would tell ex that I was going to claim for child benefit instead in the hope that she will drop the claim for maintenance. This is of course providing you cover the cost for clothes, childcare and uniforms equally.

Does seem quite low, cant imagine £42/week covers the cost of managing a child and the school run with holding down a fulltime a job. You should probably top it up.

My daughter is 13 so more than aware of how costly a child is to raise 😊.

It just didn't make sense me becoming the "paying parent" if I have my child more?

I wouldn't be eligible for child benefit because of my salary.

Only overnights actually count, not days. Haven't worked it out based on what you've said but that might make a difference to the amount over the rest of the days for this year?

It's a shame you didn't claim maintenance yourself for whatever reason during the time your daughter was with you full time (if you're annoyed you didn't get financial support from Mum) but that's just how it is, they won't take into account anything before the claim was made.

From my experience the non resident parent pays even when they have 50/50 if the cms have anything to do with it. You are better off making a private arrangement if you have a reasonable ex partner.

Have you discussed this with the CMS they can explain to you the reasoning rather us guessing

Are you a high earner - yes going by the child benefit statement

At you in a shared care situation - yes regardless of the night gone it is from the day you make a claim.

Is the other parent on a reduced income ? Therefore to level things up for your DD it is expected that you make some contribution. So that each home life is reasonably balanced

If you are a higher earner not able to claim the child benefit so what's that £40-50k PA. are you really struggling (emotionally) to provide £40 a week to support your daughter and help her mother give her a quality of life she deserves?

For clarity it's 3 nights with me. I pick her up from school Thursday and she goes back to her mum Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately my ex is far from reasonable, she would rather get Botox and fillers and give my daughter a £1 rustlers burger for tea.

I've sought legal advice and they say if the care and responsibilities are shared (school runs, doctors etc), neither parent should pay each other regardless of who earns more or who receives child benefit.

That's where I'm confused and CMS keep repeating it's because her mum claims the child benefit?

The year will run from when the case was opened, the calendar year makes no difference, based on the expected arrangement for the next year. The CMS calculator throws out the following based on 177 nights a year and £50k salary so looks about right.

Unfortunately the system is far from perfect and will allow people to not spend the money where it should be spent if possible, the same as it allows parents to hide earnings and quit jobs to avoid paying in the first place. Just keep doing right by your daughter and don't let what you can't affect get to you.

@muchtoocold it's not 177 nights a year its 177 nights between when the claim was started (april?) and the end of 2021 isn't it?

You would have been able to claim maintenance from her mother during the 3 months you had her, but since you didn't put in a claim at the time, you can't get it included in the calculations after the event.

If your ex has just put in the claim, the amounts will be based on the current arrangement of 3 days a week, so is to pay for the 1 extra day her mother has her.

So why do they ask for additional nights on top of the three nights? I put an extra 21 for summer holidays and Christmas which would surely bump it up even more?

I've sought legal advice and they say if the care and responsibilities are shared (school runs, doctors etc), neither parent should pay each other regardless of who earns more or who receives child benefit.

Take it to a tribunal then. By your own admission it’s not 50/50 care and it’s £200 a month on a £50k salary, that’s nothing.

If you wanted to argue the toss, you’d be better off applying for the child benefit.

I assume the 21 days - 3 weeks - includes days she would have been with you anyway, so doing the calculation of 52 x 3 plus the 21 leads to double counting?

If so, 52 x 3 + (4 x 3 for the extra 4 days a week for 3 weeks) = 168 days, or 46% of a year.

It is marginal, but it is just less than half in that case.

21 nights is nearly half of the summer holidays (bear in mind two weekends at either end) so during the holidays you're 50/50 but not during the rest of the year where you have 3 nights a week so I'm not sure how you're working out that you do over 50%

There are 39 term time weeks - 117. 13 holiday weeks at 50/50 = 45.5 ish. That = 162.5 to her 202.5.

@Leaninghouse I don't believe they observe the calendar year so you would just apply the circumstances as they are now, based on the 12 months ahead and it would go through a review a year after the case was opened. Any changes in between would only be picked up if reported.