Child Maintenance and company director

[yosemite78]

My ex currently pays £81.82 EXACTLY in child maintenance. He is a director of his own agricultural business and for the last two years has told child maintenance/HMRC he earns less than £140 per week. I was made redundant a while ago and I am now struggling to provide for our son. In January this year he sent a text saying he was finally able to pay himself a proper wage and he could lift the payments to around £380. I’m still waiting and each time I bring it up he gets abusive and starts banging on about how much he paid before he set up his business and how much he paid in legal fees when we were in family court. I find it extremely draining as I feel he is just trying to control me. I know he has a second property he rents and this has never come up as additional income so he clearly doesn’t declare this. He’s got to be getting a minimum of £600 pcm for this and I doubt he has a mortgage on it. I really don’t want to resort to reporting him as I fear the repercussions for our son but it would mean he’d have to pay a little more. Does anyone know if it would show up with child maintenance if he genuinely was declaring it as income to HMRC? Also, he’s had this house for years so if he hasn’t declared it would child maintenance backdate any extra payments? I just wish he wanted to support his child 😔

What would "repercussions " for your son be? How does he know it would £380? That seems quite a big jump and a lot for one child and who has just started to pay himself a wage.
I would just keep reminding him. Perhaps give him a month and then tell him you'll update CMS if not as you're struggling. At least you've given him a chance.
Up to you whether to report the property income too but again you should really speak to him first about it. It's not the total income from the rent that is considered its what he earns from it minus allowances and expenses so it's a little more complicated. If it's below a threshold you don't have to formally declare it so it may be a dead end anyway.

From past behaviour, I fear emotional harm for our son. He’s abusive and clearly loves the power and control. I’ve given him plenty of chances to discuss this amicably but he always resorts to abuse. He says he will “help out” with anything he can but when asked to contribute to school trip like PGL I never had a penny, just a lot of abuse.

Ok but aren't you "feeding" that power and control by letting him?
You are being reasonable by asking him first and giving him plenty of opportunity to do the right thing and sort it out.

Can't you just go back to cms? If he is paying himself a wage, they can take it from there. You don't need to do anything.

@11NigelTufnel I can but the annual review isn’t until August but if he’s been paying himself since January I’m not sure they’ll do anything until then or consider the text I had from him. Guess I’ll see what they say, just wanted him to do the right thing I guess and notify them himself.

If he's an employee of his own company the CMS should look at

1. The value of the Company, and
2. Notional Income