Maintenence. Is a father only obligated to pay if they have dc some of the time?

[TinyDiamond]

This is a hypothetical situation, and me doing some personal research for many reasons.

Can anyone please explain to me how maintenence works? I know about the 15% thing via the CSA but is that only if you are the permanent resident parent?

What if you split care but not evenly? Say 70/30? Is the father still obligated to pay then? How is it worked out?

Is it possible to decide this amicably without CSA and how would it be reasonable to do so?

Any info about separations is appreciated. Nothing has happened yet but possibly on the cards.

One Dc age 2.9years.

He earns about 50k

So put in a rough guess of net income etc (you have to deduct tax. NI, pensions etc) and number of days per year he will have children. It will then give you a figure.

Thank you. On phone too.

Maintenance isn't pay per view - even if the nrp never sees the child they are still required to pay as the child doesn't stop eating, growing or needing to be housed.

You can use the csa calculator to work out how various set ups would work in terms of amounts. Many people have private arrangements that often are more than the csa amount, that's all down to personal circumstances though.

Are you married or cohabiting? Maintenance arrangements as part of divorce go through the court just like contact and a mutual arrangement can be set down.

No one can give answers about what will or won't definitely happen though in your situation. Ime most of the people I know don't use the csa and both parents have come to an arrangement as their children are their focus, their own feelings getting thrashed out elsewhere. Most parents don't divorce their children when they leave their spouse. Some do. Some don't want contact, some don't want it because they then feel morally free not to pay. Only you know how amicable/civil/unpleasant it will be.

Whoops - also don't forget about free half hours of legal advice.
That can be useful once thoughts are in order to see if you need to be instructing a solicitor or can proceed without and that things are fair and equitable.

Sorry you've got here though. Tis rubbish.

Unmarried. I only work PT.

Thanks for all advice so far. I have no concerns he wouldn't pay. There is no way I'd want to keep him from seeing dc either of course. Just trying to be sensible and get my facts straight.

Just one more thought, why is the rate the same for 2-3 nights a week? Surely that is a big difference? Why not two separate rates for two nights and three nights?

The "portion" is calculated annually. From memory, the cut-off is 102 nights a year - anything more than that and the percentage changes. So if your ex had your DC 3 nights a week it would be about 152 a year, so the amount will be less.

My experience is with my DH paying his ex, for years he paid her directly but after an access fracas the CSA became involved, and he now pays her about 1/4 of what he did voluntarily for years. So my suggestion would be try to keep things amicable and negotiate a sensible amount, the CSA requirement is from my perspective quite poor.

If you set up a private agreement between you then a mortgage provider is unlikely to include that money in your income. So you would be able to borrow far less than if you had court ordered maintenance via the CSA.

Not a lovely thing to consider but it could cause a huge headache in the future.

I earn less than 10k a year. A mortgage is absolutely not a possibility for many years yet and if It wpuld be it would only be based on a much higher earning full time job. Thanks though. Yes will def try come to amicable private agreement.

As my XH has the DC for different amounts of time each month (due to a combination of my work sometimes taking me away from home and him sometimes being away) we work out the amount of maintenance on a monthly basis.

Not mortages but does anyone know if letting agents would take it into account when renting a flat? This is all a nightmare

I've rented a lot of places TinyDiamond and never been asked about maintenance before...

Also, maintenance payments are not taken into account when calculating tax credits tiny.

So long as you work 16 hours a week on average you can claim these along with the maintenance payments. I ended up better off after splitting from my XH, but we were married so I was able to stay in the marital home under a mesher order. XH was livid.

All the info about minimum payments can be found on the CSA calculator, and if you look at the tax credit calculator it will tell you how much you can get in payments between now and the end of March 2015.

Good luck!

Many thanks. I work 14.8 hours. Am going to see tomorrow about increasing them. I do not know what I will do if they say no.

If they say no you just get another job walking someones dog or cleaning an elderly relatives house/garden for 2 hours a week. Simples. At one point I had five different jobs claiming tax credits and it was no problem. They never asked for payslips or anything.

I don't know how much you earn but assuming it's not shedloads, you should probably get £500 - £600 per month tax credits.

Is it that simple would I not need contract/documentation for the other job?

I didn't. I had two fully documented jobs, with payslips, P60s etc, and the rest were not documented at all. Bear in mind you don't have to do 16 hours per week every week. You could do 14.8 hours in your main job most weeks, and then, say every third week do another whole day and that would average out the 16 hours?

Any chance of overtime at main job?

I only work term time though too. will this make a difference? I was hoping to increase at mine for 2 hours bringing it to 16.8. But now worrying that won't be enough as only termtime? Do you know?

I don't know for sure but think they average it out (I only work term time too)
BUT (and I might be wrong...) you get tax credits if you work under 16hrs a week and working tax credits if it's over 16hours. That's my understanding, sure someone wld know better.
I get tax credits.
And presumably you might get child benefit?

Hello Yes you are still entitled to child maintenance what ever the split of time with the other parent if you are the main carer. Yes you can do amicably without the CSA and if you can that is better particulary as now the CSA will charge for their services as I understand from news today. Kind regards and hope that helps.

His net income is reduced by 1/7 for every night he has your DC. They then do the 15% on that if. If now, or in the future, he ever has children living with him the net income will also be reduced by up to a further 25% according to how many kids there are. They don't have to be his kids either.