Does this make me a horrible person?

[Emochild]

ExP and I have an informal arrangement around contact and maintenance payments

Last night he told me he moved in with his new girlfriend a month ago and has realised that because she has 2 children, the online calculator says he can pay less maintenance for our children -and will be doing as of next month

He now has our dc less than once a fortnight and has cancelled things with them to pick her daughter up from school etc

I would imagine that his girlfriend claims tax credits, based on the job I know she does. According to dd he still has his house and gets all his post delivered there -he told dd he needed to go round, get his post and 'make it look like someone lives there'

I'm seriously tempted to report them to tax credits, or at least tell him that I could

It's only £50 a month in his mind, but in my mind £50 a month is a lot of money not to have especially as I can't work due to DD1's SEN

Does that make me horrible?

Sorry meant to add it's £20 to open a claim and the effective date will be 7 days after you make your application...my worry is he may not receive notification by post if he has not updated his address via government agencies. The letter legally requires to be received by him before CMS then start the information gathering calls to him, it's the letter that sets the effective date

Any update Emochild

Oops sorry for lack of update

I don't want to go down the CMS route as I can't afford for him to stop paying in the short term

However I've guessed that his girlfriend will be more worried so I've told him that as he doesn't officially live with her then he has completed the calculation incorrectly and he might want to recalculate, especially since it's tax credit renewal season so the best time to update them on their living arrangements as she won't want to be hit by a large overpayment that needs paying back

I've left it with him for now

Nicely played

Might be a good idea to try to get yourself into a position where you can afford to go down the CMS route if you need to. I appreciate that's easier said that done.

I don't think there's a conversation to be had - save yourself a headache, make the call to CMS explain the circumstances as you understand them and ask them to pursue - will save you a whole lot of grief. Yes he'll be ratty, but that's his problem, you need to do what's right in terms of your children.

To be honest I thought that regardless of whether he is living with her or not, her DCs are not his and as such he has no financial responsibility for them (technically) so in theory it should have no impact on his payments to you. Presumably she is receiving maintenance from her DCs father???!!! - (as well as her bloody tax credits and council tax reduction!!)