Child Maintenance or Spousal Maintenance

[DADKiwi]

Hello,

My consent order has the following wording regarding payments to my ex-wife.

The respondent undertakes to continue to providing the applicant with ongoing financial support for the benefit of Child 1 and Child 2 until each child finishes secondary education or turns 18, whichever is later at the rate of £287.50 per child payable on the 1st of each month to the applicant and to be reviewed on 1 January each year thereafter RPI index linked.

In the event that the respondents gross annual salary decreases by more than 10% the parties agree that a revised calculation would be made.

To me this strongly reads to be Child Maintenance and not Spousal Maintenance. The values above were reached using the CMS calculator.

I have the children 50% of the time so would not pay child maintenance.

Do other consent orders explicitly use the term Spousal Maintenance or Child Maintenance?

She is mortgage free as presumably that was agreed in the financial spilt at the time, and she had eg a lower claim on your pension as a result. working 4 days per week is hardly slacking.

Can you have a discussion with her about ongoing maintenance and cost splits? I agree it is not spousal.

That’s child maintenance
go to cms and ask for a recalculation

if ex wants more money she’ll need to up her hours from 4 to 5 days

If she's mortgage free then she definitely doesn't need the same income as you to have an equivalent lifestyle and if she's working part time then she's probably not maximising her income either. These factors are more relevant to spousal than child maintenance but nevertheless in your position I would be seeking to opt out of the consent order now without any feelings of guilt.

These things are awful because you only have one side of the story. You say you're subsidizing her mortgage free lifestyle. She might say having the kids every weekend means you have Friday/Saturday/Sunday so have the kids 50:50 but she's facilitating you working full time and her only part time. The truth is somewhere in the middle or completely off the page.

Its me who has the kids Thurs-Sunday then Thurs- Monday AM alternately. So I actually have them arguably more than 50%.
I'm not looking to stop making payments- my original post merely asked if the wording my the consent order looked "standard" as it reads as CM.
My costs are increasing and the rpi linking has meant the monthly payments are now 675. If I run up a new CMS amount using the online calculator it gives me 500.

I have a consent order with both child maintenance and spousal maintenance and I would say yours relates to child maintenance. Spousal maintenance in mine is listed separately and called spousal maintenance and is a fixed amount not related to my child or their age.
The child maintenance refers to being assessed as necessary and I was told depends on them being in full time education etc.

I guess the question is...does the 12 month limit apply here ?
Is that limit only for CM or for SM also?
Given the wording is ambiguous could she argue its SM and there not subject to a CMS review?

In what sense do you have them more than 50-50? One week you have them 3 nights, Thu - sat and one 4, Thu - sun.

Yes the 12 month limit applies
go to cms

“with ongoing financial support for the benefit of Child 1 and Child 2 “

that doesn’t seem ambiguous tbh

Ok given this strongly reads to be child maintenance (and spousal appears nowhere) - and given kids are split 50/50 I could likely make a case to stop paying altogether?
Would she be able to then go back to court to ask for SM?

@DADKiwi

The wording in your consent degree isn’t standard. Bur you must also realise (and appreciate) that the schedule of your child
arrangement is also NOT standard.
You have a lot more of the weekend time with them - and i presume this facilitates your working full time.

So - if you now go and tell CMS that given current 50/50 - you shouldn’t pay anything - your W is totally within her rights to demand a more standard child arrangement. Week on /week off is what most working people do. Of alternating 3/4 days.

I am guessing she wasnt working or was part time before you divorced. And the income difference was the reason why she got the mortgage free house as her earning potential was lower.

So - current income and earning potential would be taken into account:

What days does she currently work now? Is that the days kids are with you?

I do think it you suddenly reduced her payments by 600/month - your kids would suffer.

Agree

@DADKiwi have you actually talked to your ex? Noting that your salary hasn’t gone down but your mortgage is going up and so you would like to look at CM again, the agreement says X, the CMS calculator says Y, could you agree to somewhere in between.

The child arrangements are entirely of her design. I did try to challenge it 2 years ago but she flew off the handle.
I would prefer alternating full weeks.
To be clear - my intention is not to cease payments - merely refresh the amount based on the current CMS calculator. I'm just trying establish my options. I need to balance the kids welfare with my own bills. Her part time hours are her choice. E.g she only works 4 days (full days) a week by choice.

Is it possible she could go back to court now to make a claim for SM? Could she also go back to court to go after my pension?

@DADKiwi just to confirm, are you in England/Wales?

England

I think the best thing is to go and talk to your original solicitor, or to a new one and show them the order.

Does this order make any reference to spousal maintenance of £1 a year? That keeps the door open to increasing it in future. But I believe courts mostly prefer a clean break, so if the house was negotiated at the time in lieu of a pension claim, that shouldn’t be reopened.

Can you recall?

@DADKiwi ,

It definitely sounds like child maintenance and you are legally entitled to stop it altogether. She would then have to go to CMS and apply and, likely, given your circumstances, she wouldn’t get anything.

In terms of the above, though, I would call (or e mail) the solicitor you used for the divorce to see where you actually stand.

However, and it is a big however, having an amicable relationship with your ex is very positive for the children and suddenly stopping paying would not be good for this. I would have a discussion explaining that you are now worse off and asking to agree to a new (substantially) lower amount. If it doesn’t work, then I would let her know that you are unilaterally reducing it to X (whatever you feel is fair) and that she can take you to court or go through the CMS to get more.

Agree with the PP - as yet you haven’t said if you have discussed this with her.

I'm wanting to understand my options/risks before speaking with her. The mere prospect scares me as she is hugely reactive.

I repeat - my intention is not to stop payments altogether and I agree how important it is maintain good a good relationship with her - as it has been the past year or so.

Consent order screen capture follows.

She got £350k in cash (which she used to buy a house outright) + the car - and given she had multiple affairs its still a bitter pill. I wasn't left with much - enough to put down a deposit.

Reduce your payments to those set out by CMS. She should be accepting of this. It’s best to sort these things without court cases.

Your consent order stipulates a clean break. I do not believe she has grounds to go after your pension or for spousal support now.

Your consent order clearly states that she can not re-open the pension sharing. Or anything ‘CAPITAL’ related.

BUT there is no clean break on ‘INCOME’ - she can ask for more spousal, and/or adjustment to child maintenance.

So - as others suggested - try talking to her, rather than just cutting her off.

Have you thought about asking a solicitor instead of randoms on a message board?

Do you have a court order for contact? Could she refuse to return the kids in retaliation. If she accused you of something it could take years to sort out.