maintenance

[amfay]

How much is it reasonable to expect ex to pay for eight month old daughter? I work freelance so don't have a regular, guaranteed income. He has a full-time job, although not that highly paid. However, he has a mortgage-free house which he lives in with his son (and myself and our daughter at the moment) and doesn't have any financial problems. I have a flat which I've been renting out but will now have to sell as I can no longer afford the mortgage (I bought it when I was working full time). I will have to rent somewhere for myself and dd to live. He's talking about a friend of his who pays £30 a week maintenance for his daughter, but she's a teenager now and this seems like a small amount to me.

It is normally 15% but not sure how it would be as he already has another child. You need to call csa for an assessment. Do you know how much wages he gets? I also called Gingerbread who were fantastic and much better to me at providing information than the cab.

You might actually have to live in your flat rather than renting as i think there are some rules that you will be making your self homeless. Was almost in this situation but i stayed in house as i wouldnt be able to get hb or ctr if i sold.

Sorry you are in this situation it is tough.

Yes, I know what he earns. I can't afford my mortgage so I will have to sell the flat. HB won't help you with mortgage repayments for 6 months (by which time the flat will be repossessed!)Surely if I sell the flat (there won't be any money left over) and go to them with nothing they'll have to help us??

Sorry you are going through this.

Are you married? If not, then, as far as I am aware, his capital assets such as property, savings, etc., are not taken into account. If you can come to a private arrangement, then great, but, otherwise (via the CSA), it is not about what is 'reasonable', or how old the child is or what they need, but is just worked out on a flat percentage of his income.

As jelly says, via the CSA (if they do their job!), you would receive 15% of his net (after tax) income. Depending on your earnings (based on last tax year), you would also get child and working tax credits which can be a big help. Visit www.entitledto.com which has an online calculator to try and work out what you would receive. If you have a low income AND receive very little child maintenance money, then you might also be entitled to help with council tax and/or rent (not sure about rent though, perhaps someone else knows?) It might be helpful to visit the Citizens Advice Bureau or speak to the tax credit helpline.

In your place, I would work out what I would get via the CSA first and then this as a basis for negotiation with your ex. It also depends on how amicable it all is between you. You might prefer to go via the CSA in order to not have to negotiate with your ex but he might resent this and the CSA might take ages to sort things out which would leave you worse off than if you had come to an agreement with him.

It would be a shame to sell your flat. You may find, once you have worked out all of the above, that you and dd can afford to live there yourselves.

Tax credits is worked out on what you earnt last year. If you didn't earn much last year, you would get more and that might give you enough leeway/time to earn more this year in order to allow you to keep the flat?

No, we're not married. Sadly, I think selling the flat is unavoidable. I've always earnt good money and dd wasn't planned (although she's the best thing that ever happened to me) so I just assumed I'd carry on earning and I now have a mortgage to pay and credit card debts to pay off. I have tenants in my flat who I've just given notice to and dd and I will stay here in ex's house until they leave, then I plan to move back in and put it on the market and pay off as much debt as I can. Obviously, I'll work as much as possible but I still can't see myself earning enough to cover the mortgage and our living expenses in the long term and I'd rather sell than end up having the flat repossessed.

Forgot to add that, as a single parent, you only need to work 16 hours (or more) in order to be eligible for working tax credits. I am not sure what age of your child this goes up to, as the govt. is in the process of changing this, but you would be able to find out. It doesn't necessarily matter that you are freelance as the weekly hours you work is calculated as an average over time. You would just need to be able to demonstrate that you worked an average of 16 hours a week over the yearly period. If your freelance hours are less than this, you could always take on additional part-time job.

Hope this helps.

x-post. I understand what you are saying but I would still try and work out what you would receive before making a final decision (esp. as the housing market is flat at the moment).

If you go through the csa- word of warning- I still haven't had a penny after 3yrs and it doesn't look like there's much being done about it. But then, my ExP is very unco-operative. If you can work out a private arrangement it would prob save a lot of stress and hassle.

thats easy to beat - my ex went 14 years ago as of thursday night, and ive only had £3 in maintenance.

If he's earning, and preumably gets a P6o or completes a tax return then you will get 15% of net salary for one child. However as he has his son they will reduce his net salary a little before working out the 15%. Look here and put in his details...

secureonline.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/calculate-maintenance.asp

Bear in mind that this will be reduced by 1/7th for every overnight that he has your child to stay over, so you will need to factor this in to your caluclations. What contact is he likely to ask for and be able to maintain once you do live in different homes? You will probably need to reduce by 2/7th or even 3/7ths depending on this. Bear in mind you will be able to work longer hours if he has her overnight midweek, and you can have a social life if he has her at weekends! All big plusses for you, but what is most important is that your daughter maintains a decent relationship with her father despite your splitting up. She is entitled to a relationship with him, so don't let the reduced money blind you to this.

It is a tricky situation but i would say do not move out. There is provision in the children's act that says if he has significant assets that he must provide suitable accomodation for his children. Course he could argue that you already have a flat, but if it's not suitable (eg big enough), then you moving in there will be like saying it is suitable. He also has his son who he has to provide accomodation for. So it is unlikely you will get the house, but that doesn't mean you can't try and stake some claim to it or the value of it on your daughter's behalf. It really depends how much of a battle you want and what the long term results will be in tertms of the relationship he has with his daughter moving forward. If you are working you are unlikely to get legal aid, but you do get a free half hour with a sol, you can contact the CAB and organisations like gingerbread and Fnf for further advise.

If you can get a written agreement from his that he will pay as per the CSA calculation (or more) then try and get that sorted as soon as you can. If you make things difficult with the house he will make it difficult with paying, and likely drag out the CSA enquiry. However any decent parent will accept their responsibility to pay their share, as well as agree to good contact arangements.

As far as your original question as to what is reasonable, the CSA calc should be seen to be reasonable and is designed to give the child the kind of lifestyle they could have expected had you stayed together. I would go with what that says as a starting point.

Best of luck
Gilly

£30 pw sounds as though the friend is working a flanker or is on benefits . I wouldn't pay too much credence to that. There's some excellent advice on here and don't be afraid to badger CAB or Gingerbread as well.

I'll second those who recommend hanging onto the flat if you can. A mortgage is usually cheaper than renting and one day it'll be yours outright evne if you have to re-mortgage/extend the term to make it more affordable.

If you sell your flat, the council have no obligation to help re-home you as you will have made yourself homeless. Only if its repossessed do they help. You may qualify for housing benefit on a private rental though based on your income.

Maintenance wise, its 15% for one child with standard reductions being made for other children and overnight stays of the non resident child. If on IS, then the money goes to the Government to help pay for your benefits but if you work you keep the maintenance and may choose to do so privately rather than through the CSA.

I think you can get help to pay some of the intrest on your mortgage. Not eniterlely sure though but worth finding out about.

hi. my 2 children have diff dads- and I'm now on my own.
csa are poo!!!!! sorry but my son is 9 i have told them where his dad is- given them phone numbers etc etc they still have not managed to sort out maintenance so i recieve none from him.
my babe dad pays me 120 per month for her- he doesn't earn much over minimum wage and never has but this is an agreement between us the csa have had nothing to do with this.
i'd def advise you to get advice from Cab etc as others have suggested to see if there anyway of keeping on your flat

Thanks everyone for your advice. I have managed to find the money to cover my mortgage for a while (wonderful parents!) and have been advised to apply for working tax credits and child tax credits when dd and I move back to my flat. I don't qualify for help with my mortgage (that takes 9 months and then only if you're on income support!!!?) but I'm hopeful that I can earn enough to keep covering our expenses.

Well done! Parents are great aren't they!! I certainly don't know what I'd do without mine!

Get your tax creds sorted asap - they're usually quite quick to get this done - I basically live off my tax creds as my income from working only just covers all my bills. I have set up an account for wages to go into and everything gets DD'd out of it. My other account is for weekly tax creds and ch benefit and that money is for everyday things. Whatever is left at the end of the week goes into a savings account.

If you really organise your finances and keep on top of it, you will be fine. Good luck xxx