Adult child and maintenance

[CandyLeBonBon]

Can anyone offer any insight? (Excuse the duplicate post but I've had little traffic in legal matters)

My exH has been paying £1200 a month since we separated in 2009 and has stayed the same in spite of his increased salary around £90/100k)

We have a consent order signed in 2019 in which he agreed to support our 3 children until age 21 or they start working full time or go to uni, whichever is sooner.

My eldest is 19 and autistic and deemed to have a limited capability for work by DWP and on UC (no earned income). My other children are 16 and 13.

He recently accused me of controlling him snd manipulating the children to get information about him (I don't and haven't) and now refuses to communicate in any form. He refuses to collect the kids from the house when he sees them. They have chosen to avoid seeing him because they find him dismissive, emotionally absent and they find him difficult to communicate with, so haven't spent much time with him recently. I have always encouraged a relationship.

Yesterday I found thst he has reduced maintenance payments by £400 without any discussion.

I think a consent order is only enforceable for maintenance for 12 months, but as my eldest son is likely to be at home for a good while longer and has limited earning capacity at the moment, is this worth taking to court over?

I'm not sure if there is anything I can do? He's sprung it on me with no notice and I rely on that at the moment. I do work full time and the kids are with me 99% of the time. I do all medical/therapy/financial appointments with my eldest son and act as advocate for him with admin/financial matters etc, so a fair bit of extra work on top of my job.

I have politely asked to talk about his decision via text/email but he is stonewalling me.

Does anyone have any understanding of where I stand legally? Is it worth pursuing or do I just need to suck it up and get a second job?

If anyone has any advice or insight I'd be really grateful.

I would seek legal advice from a Solicitor as soon as possible.

re your comment on your children:-
"They have chosen to avoid seeing him because they find him dismissive, emotionally absent and they find him difficult to communicate with, so haven't spent much time with him recently. I have always encouraged a relationship".

Why when he has always been like this?. Its a question you need to ask yourself. Too many women get conditioned to being nice and kind with men who behave abusively. Given his own behaviour as well towards you also its not really all that surprising that the relationship between them and him has broken down; they've come to realise what he is really like and he is and always has been abusive. Now he's withholding money in an attempt to further control you all.

If he earns #90k, no kids of his own, then if you go down the child maintenance route he should be paying about #1000 a month for your two under-18 children. (or #777 in a couple of years with just one under-18).
So, you could contact CMS -- or just threaten to do that and just send him the link to do the sums. www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance.
To get more than that, and for over-18s, would need the legal route.