Child maintenance - how does this work

[XJerseyGirlX]

I'm hoping someone has some experience with this situation. Been split from my daughters father for 5 years, in that time he has never paid child maintenance and I didn't force the issue as I wasn't struggling for money and didn't want to rock the boat ( we barely get on).

Fast forward and I'm now struggling for money with the price increase of everything. I messaged him and asked if he could have a think about how he could help and what he may be able to afford ( he works full time as a contractor for £130 a day). God what followed was a hurl of abuse thrown at me and an offer of £20 a week , which he still hasn't managed to pay.

The issue I have is , if I take him to child maintenance how will they be able to take money if he refuses to pay? Because he is a contractor I don't think they will be able to take it directly from his employer.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this ?

Thanks

£130/day is not a lot of money - this man is not a high earner! And as a contractor I imagine he doesn't get paid for annual leave or sick leave, so his annual income may be even less than you would expect. Plus if he pays into a pension that will reduce his CMS liability. However, £20/week is probably not as much as the CMS calculator would have him pay. Have you put the figures through the online calculator? The amount payable will depend on various factors such as how many children he has and how much contact he has.

CMS certainly may find it more tricky to get money from a self-employed parent initially, but there are various options they can pursue, so if he refuses to pay maintenance voluntarily, going via CMS is a good idea.

By no annual leave, I mean that in many cases it is factored into the hourly/daily rate (i.e. it's factored into the £130/day already), btw.

it depends if he is a contractor with a limited company or not. As the rules on IR35 changed most contractors now get paid via an umbrella company and so more difficult to hide earnings and pay themselves dividends. You should apply via CMS. He hasn’t paid towards his child for 5 years and thinks £20 a week is reasonable! What a nasty piece of work he sounds. Luckily you have subsided him and acted as a proper parent. If you do a private arrangement he probably won’t pay most of the time so CMS can track this for you. Try one of their calculators to see what he should be paying

I tried the calculator but it doesn't factor in what @CakeIsNotAvailable has mentioned about not being paid annual leave and sick pay . It said £280 per month but I didn't want to take that much for him , I would be happy with £150 a month.

He has no other children and lives alone, he sees her 4 days a month. I'm just on my arse at the moment and really struggling. I'm gutted that the civil relationship has broken down. I was shocked that he felt so angry about it.

Thanks for your replies , I really appreciate it.

The CMS calculator will not factor that in. Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point is that his annual salary (which you put in the calculator) won't be £130 x 5 x 52. It'll be £130 x 5 (assuming he works 5 days a week every week?) x 46 or 48 or whatever, depending on how many weeks a year he actually gets paid for.

If you'd be happy with £150/month, ask him for that, and make it clear you'll go to CMS if he doesn't agree to it. Then if he doesn't agree you can apply to CMS with your conscience clear.

@CakeIsNotAvailable Thankyou, I initially accepted the £20 a week he offered as I was just great full with any help at all , but he paid for two weeks then stopped.

I've been reluctant to go through CMS as I felt bad thinking they would take more than I needed and didn't want to 'rinse' him. But I realise that my daughter is suffering and I'm being a doormat for the sake of trying to keep the peace.

He won't speak to me now at all and has blocked all contact with me after sending me a barrage of abuse.

Thanks for being so helpful, it's nice of you to take the time to reply.

CMS is useless. My ex hasn't paid any maintenance since October. Before that he paid rarely, or late, or didn't bother
He is apparently on a DEO, and still doesn't pay. CMS appear to,be doing fuck all about it. I get so angry when I think about it. And add to it another fruitless day trying to find out what is going on.
Right this moment I'm so angry

I should add not paid since October 2021.
Can't believe it's November 2032 already

Argh, 2023
Although I'm sure he won't pay by 2032 either

Ffs 2022
I need wine

You don't need to factor in annual leave or sick pay on the calculator u also don't need to input annual salary u can put in £130 weekly the amount of nights he has child if any and if he has any other children living with him.

I would open up a case with cms yes they are useless if you don't keep on at them and more so if they are self employed but this is for your child! Him getting angry at you asking tells you everything and offering £20 a week is disgusting imo.
Right now you have nothing to lose opening a case x

XJerseygitlX Please think about accepting the full amount that CMS award you.

A child should be supported by both parents. This is money for the child’s benefit and if it’s not all needed for expenses, some can be invested for a holiday or for further education.

This is bad advice. If he is self-employed and his day rate is £130, then his annual income is NOT 130 x 5 x 52, if he does not get paid on the days/weeks he is not working. OP will only get an accurate sense of what CMS will order him to pay if she puts a vaguely correct salary estimate in the calculator. If she massively overestimates his salary, she may assume he's underpaying CMS if he offers what is in fact the correct amount.

I have seen this happen - a friend refused her ex's offer of maintenance because she assumed he was underpaying based on his daily rate of pay, without understanding that he was only working around 44 weeks a year and took some Wednesdays off, so his annual salary was such that the amount he had offered was actually slightly more than CMS would have ordered - she ended up with slightly less because she went via CMS, and engendered some acrimony and bad feeling in the process.

Are you sure that is the amount he is getting? Its very low for a contractor?

I would just leave the CMS to get on with it. Most contractors pay themselves via a combination of salary and dividends. The day rate goes to their company and is used to fund other things, like VAT, company expenses like accounting, materials etc, as well as the salary and dividend. So the day rate does not directly translate into what his personal income is.

On such a low day rate, however, I can't imagine he's charging VAT or can afford an accountant.

It doesn't sound like he is going to stump up any cash, CMS or no CMS, but they might as well give it a try.

Go through CMS and don’t feel guilty. He obviously doesn’t feel guilty for letting his daughter go without by not supporting her.

I'm not sure how you know what your ex earns daily but it's irrelevant OP. Contact CMS it's a worth a try. Don't say anything to him about it and just accept the £80 for now!

Hope things pan out for you.

Thank you everyone, when we were last together he was earning £130 a day ( that was 5 years ago ) and I didnt want to assume he earns more now so just did the calculation based on what I knew.

I've done the claim and feel nervous and a bit bad, but as pp as said my daughter is missing out on things that she needs.

I'm waiting for abuse to be thrown at me by him somehow as soon as they contact him.

@CakeIsNotAvailable

It's not bad advice! How can telling the OP to go through cms to get what her child deserves from her parent be bad advice? Yes I've stayed the fact he's self employed makes it harder but right now the ops ex is offering to provide only £20 a week!! I stated that the op didn't need to input annual leave or sick pay into the calculator which is a fact she only needs to input his weekly amount (granted it's an estimate on her end) cms only gets revised annually unless there's a 25% income difference throughout the year and they are told about it.

The fact is he should be provided for his child and definitely more than £20 and going through cms means she doesn't need to deal with him directly about it.

Good for you OP!

Let him moan about it you haven't done anything wrong it's your daughters right to be provided for by both parents!

Good luck

Going via CMS is reasonable, if parents can't agree. I was just cautioning against overestimating his annual income. If OP uses an overestimate in the CMS calculator, then OP and her ex will struggle to agree a figure informally because she will be expecting more than he offers.

If OP thinks her ex earns, say, £40k a year, and enters that into the online calculator, but her ex only actually earns £32k a year (and can evidence this), then my understanding is that if OP formally applies to the Child Maintenance Service, they'll use what he actually earns to calculate maintenance, not OP's incorrect assumption. The 25% change thing only comes into play once a figure has been calculated, doesn't it?

Cakes is not available

where are you coming from?!?!

this woman has raised her child and supported her financially from the off almost single handedly

op go after him and go hard!

get every penny you can and see how he likes struggling to make ends meet because he’s finally paying for his daughter!!