Child maintenance cover

[TitaniumTess]

Hi, can anyone please summarise what child maintenance should cover?

My ex (long story... absolute pain, history of abuse) is convinced that it should cover everything for our son. He doesn't pay me much. Our son spends more time with me.

I think given that our son spends a wedge of the time at his Dad's, his Dad could buy one spare school uniform set etc.....

His Dad's suggesting I send a set over, provide all hobbie gear etc etc

Thanks in advance xx

It’s his contribution towards what your son needs when you’re looking after him.

The cost of looking after his son when he’s with him is for him to finance. His child maintenance payment is discounted based on the number of nights he has him per year in recognition of the fact that ds costs money when with dad.

If ds attends hobby on his day, he pays for equipment. He should buy stuff like clothes for his days too.

How much he pays depends on his income and how many nights he has ds. If you know how much he earns then an online CM calculator will tell you how much he should be paying you.

Child maintenance helps offset the additional costs of being the resident parent. That's it. There's no list saying that it must be used to pay for x, y and z.

There’s not a ‘what it should cover’ it’s just a standard formula based on his income and how long your son stays with him. If he’s determined to be a git, at the expense of your son - probably not much you can do.

Well no it doesn't cover everything as you also need to contribute towards your child, but legally it covers his half and he doesn't have to pay anything more including extras

He doesn't have to pay anything more? Not clothes with the DC are at his place? Toiletries? Food? Bedding? Nothing at all?

Thanks! I don't begrudge my son anything and he's well looked after.

It's just annoying when my ex wants even a primary school uniform for our son to go back to school with....

CMS is a contribution to you for the cost of having your son more than he does. You each have to provide what they need when they are with you -
bed & furniture
food & drink
school lunches
childcare
clothing

So no you don’t need to pack a bag for your DS, he should be providing uniform and non-uniform clothes too and doing laundry.

Exactly that. It’s a contribution to the costs of the extra time (should be 50% but obviously isn’t).

so if you did 4 days and 3 days, he would pay a contribution to the extra 4th day that you have him. You would each pay full cost for the 3 days each they are with you. That’s why the money decreases for the amount of time they are with the NRP, because that person is supposed to be covering all costs for the time they have the child with them

There isn't a set amount of 'things' that is covered. Cheapskate ex could buy a set of uniform for when he's there, but you can send hobby gear. From experience those are expensive, so unless your ex is likely to lose or destroy them, it doesn't make sense to have an extra set just for when he's there.