is maintenance compulsory and only for married couples

[milkmonster]

scuse caps lock not workibg and fiddly keyboard sono punctuation...

i am unmarried with two children under two and half with same man, he does not live with us nor contribute other than the compulsory fiver a week auto deducted by csa..

he hasnt worked for at least 10 years, basically scraping living selling on ebay, he owns his house with no mortgage, i say house it used to be his junk shop he is a hoarder so now lives in space in attic surrounded by junk..

he states emphatically that if he got a job they would take a third of his wages as maintenance which i thought only applied if you were married...convenient excuse for him as he probably never plans to work again anyway if he can help it...but is this correct as i cant seem to get straight answer from any websites or advice bureaux...

i live in private rented house with two babies and claim income support and housing benefit. i dont want money from him even if he did find a job but i would like to assure him that half his wages would not go straight into my bank account as he seems to be convinced of..

does maintenance only apply to married couples...and no he cant sell his house, rent it out, etc as he hoards, that means he lives like those people you see on the tv programmes..

child maintenance is a percenetage of his pay and nothing to do with marital status.

No, you will get maintenance. I have one dc and get 15% of ex's wages, I think it would be slightly more than that for 2 children, but certainly not a third of his wages. Be aware though that on income support you'd only be allowed to keep £20 a week maintenance. It wouldn't affect your housing benefit.

No, maintanence is payable by the father of the children irrespective of whether you were married or not.

It wouldn't be a third of his wages though. 20% I think for 2 children.

would it be auto deducted from his wages if he starts work, ie income support would inform employer...

YOu could come to a private arrangment if you wished.

CSA would deduct 20% of his net pay if you went through them.

I think you would have to alert the CSA if he starts work rather than rely on the income support people to inform them. The CSA are notoriously shit if you don't chase them up.

What's been said above is correct. But even if it was a third (which it isn't), how much of your money do you spend on the kids?

That's what the maintenance rules miss out - how much the parent with care has to spend. Not relevant, of course. Just the whining of the non-resident parent to bother about. Tch.

Child maintenance is payable by any non resident parent, regardless of marital status.

For 2 children, it is 20% of NET weekly/monthly income via the CSA.

As you are on Income Support, you DO NOT have to go through the CSA anymore to claim child support. You can ask him for a contribution privately between the two of you but you have to tell the Income Support people that you are receiving it.

You can only keep £20 a week of it (at the moment) and anymore will reduce your Income Support.

As he already has the money deducted by the CSA then that case would continue until you closed it. If he starts working it is up to either you or him to tell the CSA about his change in circumstances.

They will sometimes let him pay you directly, by direct debit or standing order, although they are pushing deductions of earnings at the moment where it comes straight from the wages (this I do not think is right unless the non resident parent has been non compliant and refused to pay).

So they would perhaps let him pay 20% of his net income to you directly or would get his employers to deduct 20% of his net income first, before he gets it and send it to the CSA.

Or, if you both could agree, you could close the CSA case down and he could pay you directly.

HTH.

Lindsaygii ... You also have to remember that the non resident parent also has to run a house to live in and keep the children when/if they are with them AND the non resident parent doesn't get any child benefit, child tax credits etc etc towards the child like the parent with care does.