Would cms tell me if i was better off as I am?

[userfred]

Ex is self employed and lives with a partner who has 4 kids. None of these are his.

I have 2 dc. Ex is messing us around and constantly trying to cut his time. Just a couple of questions -

1. I've been advised to go through cms but if I do this, I'm worried I will come worse off. I know her kids will be taken into account.

He does pay maintenance. He's self employed and I have no idea how much he earns though I have googled it. If he earns the lower amount then he's paying me more than he should according to cms. But if he's earning a higher amount then he isn't paying me enough. So it's a risk isn't it?

Would cms be able to tell me wether it's worth putting in a claim or not?

1. When the kids go up to see him, during the school holidays they spend half the time with their grandparents. Ex doesn't stay with them. So would this still count as nights he has them as the kids aren't in his care but his parents?

Thanks. My kids are 13 and 11 and I'm well and truly fed up of their father!

i wouldn’t go to cms if he is self employed and yes them staying with grandparents will be considered time he has them

Thank you, I've never considered doing it before as I never thought it would work in my favour. I've got another post going on here and a couple of people suggested it.

Yes people will always tell you to go to cms as they don’t realise it doesn’t work for everyone. I get told to go to cms even though my ex doesn’t work or claim benefits 🤷‍♀️

Yeah I get that. My ex does work, he works non stop and puts his work over the kids which is why I did start to wonder. My gut feeling is he will be in the higher bracket of earners for his job - courier driver - but I don't want to risk it

If its him arranging to see the grandparents on "his time" then yes it still counts as "his time"

Ok thank you. That's good to know. If they go for a week in the holidays - they stay one night with their dad and the rest with their grandparents without their dad present so I just wondered

It’s him being self employed he will lie about his earnings

Oh right do cms just rely on what the paying parent says? I thought they would have access to the earnings

If he's self employed he can declare what he wants, divert income, put people as directors and pay himself a small wage. There is a lot he could do. But cms will investigate but you will have a fight on your hands to get it there because they are absolutely useless.