What more am it ment to pay ?

[Sean1970]

I've had to go through a long court battle to see my son due to my ex-wife being very difficult. Days were ordered in court and although tough it was workable. I've always paid CSA directly onto her account for my son. She has now started to be difficult again. Stopping me taking my son on his first over seas holiday by with holding his passport and stopping school trips ect. She is now demanding I pay for school uniform and school trips. It's a long sad story which I won't boor you with. But I feel her actions are now starting to effect my sons development. She even takes his pocket money off him which I give him every week. Anyway My question is can I deduct school trips from my CSA payments ?? Many thanks in advance. From a very disappointed dad. Trying to do the best for his son.

My dh pays just above the recommended amount of cm. he also pays for half of the school uniforms, buys clothes and shoes, is paying half of a school trip and we take them on holiday if we can offers it. Their mum also takes them on holiday but she pays for that. And she still gets cm when they are on holiday with us (that, I'm not to sure about as I think we should use it for them). As for dad's who don't pay anything? Well, you had kids with them, surly you knew what you were getting into

wow! There are some massive assumptions here.

themumarush- rubbish knowing what you were getting yourself into. I thought I was marrying a hard working steady guy. I had no idea by that time he was an mentally abusive arse who had already run up significant hidden debts. had I a clue the lengths he would go to avoid child support I would never have spoken to him let alone had kids with him.

Also as a second family when you chose to have children with a man your maintenance payments will drop. nothing changes for the PWC we just manage.

When i was together with my ex I would have expected 90%+ of his income to go to the basics home heat food clothing family fun. when you split 24% of that same income will go towards the first family. 70-75% to the second, if you box clever you can reduce that 24%.

yes the Csa is the only obligation you have to pay. but bearing in mind the above a decent man SHOULD pay more.

paper What on earth do you mean?

There is no second family liability for maintenance - if a man who is paying maintenance towards support for NR DCs moves in with other DCs (whether or not they are his) there is a recalculation to take into account the fact that he is financially contributing to those DCs as well. Even if he's not actually paying out to support the DCs he lives with directly, his presence in the household leads to a reduction in financial support for those DCs because his income into the household is assessed for tax credit/child benefit purposes, which it is reasonable to expect him to "make up" so those DCs are not disadvantaged.

I'm not sure what you mean when you refer to the 90%+ of a partners income going to the household reducing to 24%, isn't that self evident?
When a couple divorce, they are each expected to financially support themselves. It is possible for one party to apply for spousal maintenance from the other, but in general, after a split, the parties cannot expect any of their living costs to be met by the other. That inevitably means that both parties will experience a reduction in their standard of living.
Child maintenance is just that - a payment made by the parent without day-to-day financial responsibility for the DCs towards the costs incurred by the parent who does have financial responsibility for them.

Paper, it was a sideways glance at everybody who tells step mums "well, you knew what you were getting into when you got with a man with children!".

For instance, if a DCs mobile phone contract increases in price, a 'together' household would cut back on other things to pay for it, whereas a PWC will expect the DCs dad to contribute towards the increased cost.

it is this that I take exception to. No, PWC do not expect the NRP to contribute towards the increased cost. That' s an assumption you're making based on your experiences. I am quite sure that for every PWC who does expect this, there are plenty of others out there who swallow this kind of cost without comment continually.

Think you are right on that one mumandboys. I'm sure my dss's Phone has gone up (and the ones he's lost) but my dh has not been asked to pay more although I know he would if asked