I am the NRP as my ex doesn't work so has the day-to-day care of our 2 children. We have a Shared Residency Order in place that states what the contact arrangements should be ( I have the children 3 nights one week and 4 nights the next week and its a 2 week rolling period. In addition I have them for half of the school holidays). My ex has not adhered to the Order so I have referred the matter back to Court.
He has now claimed CM, I am happy to pay CM however he has lied to the CMS about how much contact I have with my children. I have sent a copy of the Residency Order to CMS and they have chosen to DISMISS this as evidence as it is >12 months since it was issued and it differs to what my ex has told them. Its as valid now as it was when it was issued!
- Surely a legal document provides more solid evidence than the word of a parent?
- How is it legal to ignore a Residency Order? How is this allowed to happen?
- How is it fair for the NRP to be discriminated against in this way?
- What is the point in having a Residency Order when the resident parent and CMS can just choose to disregard it?
- Am I expected to go to Court annually in order to satisfy CMS despite there already being a legal document for them to refer to?
I find it unbelievable that the resident parent can choose to lie and not have to provide any proof of the contact arrangements and the CMS will believe them.
Does anyone have any advice?
I plan to appeal but I'm petrified that I'll then have to pay more (I cant afford the payments as it is so if they were increased it would cripple me financially)
Please can anyone help?