Could my ex manipulate child maintenance in this way?

[Reprp]

He works for the nhs. I’ve just read that it’s calculated after pension contributions. Could he not massively up his pension contributions to reduce payment? I’ve got around 300 less than expected.

Yes. He can increase his pension contributions and reduce his liability for maintenance.

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters could that be the reason for the 300 do you think? So sick of his games…

I guess he will always do this then as it’s not a detriment to him at all to increase his contributions is it? He earns over 120k and doesn’t need it, he lives in a studio.

Not sure. You’d have to increase your pension contributions an enormous amount to reduce maintenance by £300, I’d have thought.

Has he maybe gone PT? Or lost his job?

maybe he is whacking thousands in his pension then. He’ll have his living expenses covered, so maybe he is.

I’d have thought there were limits on what extra you can contribute in an NHS pension though.

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters yeah I hoped there was a limit but can’t see online. He’s caused me no end of stress never know where I am with it. He’s definitely not part time, his ego couldn’t take it

It's perfectly possible to have a private pension as well as a NHS pension. So he may be doing that.

@WiseUpJanetWeiss is it technically feasible to pay it all into it in that case and live off savings? He has plenty

There's a limit to how much you're allowed to put in I think. I'll see if I can find out.

@WiseUpJanetWeiss its so stressful I actually can’t believe he can be so nasty sometimes.

Hmm. Maybe no limit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-pension-schemes/pension-schemes-rates

What a piece of work your ex is.

The NHS pension is a fixed percentage of salary. He could put it into a private pension but depending on which pay band he’s on in the NHS that’s a dangerous game due to complicated tax liability if he’s a higher earner.

I thought the annual allowance was £40k? If he was putting the maximum in does that explain a drop of £300?

Call child maintenance

Has he moved in with a girlfriend who has kids?

Is he claiming travel expenses?

@Isaidnoalready travel expenses? Is that relevant? No idea though.

he lives alone no other dc

My ex does this. I know what salary he's on but get very little from him. Strictly speaking, he's doing nothing wrong so there's nothing I can do.

@Doyoumind whst does he do/how do you know?

I know what he earns and what I receive and I know him. I've had the whole travel expenses thing too. He takes pleasure in blamelessly exploiting the system without doing anything 'wrong'.

Yes there was a lady not sure if she was on here or a Facebook group who told child maintenance that he was doing "excessive milage" to see his children (he moved away) he gave them a figure and they deducted it from the maintenance

1, they split the miles 50/50 by court order
2, his claim was nowhere near reality

Last I heard she was still fighting it they said "we go by what he says" she said no your supposed to go by the calculator and he doesn't even DO ALL THE MILES HE SAYS HE IS!

NHS pension rates are a fixed percentage of salary, but he may be contributing to a private pension as well. However, I'd be a little surprised if so, if he earns £120k - because of the annual allowance and the lifetime allowance, most NHS consultants/full-time GPs (I'm assuming he's a senior doctor if he's on £120k) don't make private pension contributions as it can end up being taxed punitively. The tax issues are so bad that it's a significant disincentive to working full-time, as even with NHS pension contributions alone, you can end up with a huge tax bill. Are you absolutely certain of your ex's income? Plenty of doctors choose to work slightly less than full-time because it is such a stressful job, and because income between £100-£110k is heavily taxed (loss of the personal allowance etc) and pension tax is a nightmare.

I think my ex is doing this lately with huge pension contributions. He told me his payment should be £80 less than what was calculated 5 years ago and I am certain he's had pay rises since so he must be topping up pension.

One thing he said to me yesterday was that school dinners and clothes for his time with kids (3 nights a week roughly) are "discretionary" according to cms - can this be true? So if I don't top up kids' dinner cards they either have to take food from his house, not eat or get into dinner debt? Really? I thought maintenance was calculated on nights spent with him because he was responsible for feeding them in that time? Same for clothes? I already buy all coats, shoes, uniform and pay for all clubs etc, which they do on his time and mine. I'm confused and pissed off. I didn't hate him before but I think I do now

@Reprp

Maintenance is from income however if you have a court agreed financial settlement stipulating a certain amount of maintenance then in order to change that (and this could be from changed income levels generally) he needs to go back to get a new settlement. Just paying you less than the agreed amount isn't acceptable. Even if he goes back to get a new order a judge might look through the contributions as purely designed to reduce his maintenance obligations.

The other thing is that pension assets are part of the marital assets and need to come into consideration in any split of such assets. Fixed contribution schemes are very straightforward as you just cut a value at a date (most schemes you can do this online to get an idea) and adjust for any transfer costs. If he is in the NHS defined benefit scheme then a formal actuarial valuation will need to be done again at a fixed date and the relative value of you and your ex's schemes will need to be taken into consideration when splitting marital assets. I know a few blokes who have given up other assets to protect their pension pot - their is quite often a fair bit of horse trading between the two parties. As with maintenance the asset split needs court approval before a decree absolut is granted, It sounds like you haven't completely worked this through.

I could write another post equally as long on the tax stuff (complicated as a few OPs have mentioned particularly for high earners) and what the options are if he transfer a part of his pension pot to you. For now I would consult your solicitor - they will be used to dealing with this and can usually recommend someone to do any pension asset valuation. You will both need to agree to the person doing this but you are fully entitled to have it done

Your specific circumstances are not totally clear from the original post but hopefully this gives a brief idea of how it works and you should definitely consult your solicitor asap