CSA question with Dp-Ex! Any help appreciated!

[indieray]

Dp has asked me to ask this question as
It's all new to us, thanks.

back Story is DP and ex been separated for over 5 years and we have DSD7 every weekend. He has paid religiously every month for 5 years through their bank accounts Never late no issues. He's had a message from her saying she has applied for CSA/CMO which is fine. But she's said she asked Them to do Collect&Pay which after reading online it says they will
Automatically do direct pay instead of collect and pay at first. It would only change to collect and pay if he misses a payment which he never has. Is this correct ? He would prefer to keep it to direct & pay if possible.
He's also travels very far to collect and take her home every weekend so it's been suggested he can apply for travel costs if necessary but has said he won't at this stage as her mother does no share of travel.
Does anyone have any idea about how collect and pay/direct pay would work in his situation please ?? And advice we appreciate! Thankyou xx

Yes - travel costs can be deduced. My OH’s EW absolutely refuses to do any pick up’s or drop offs - hasn’t done one in over 10 years. His travel costs are deducted.

He needs to ‘apply for a variation’ when the maintenance is calculated.

He can ask for the cost of travel / fuel costs to be deducted to travel between his home and the child’s home. The expense needs to be over £10 per week.

So for example - if you live 10 miles away (and it’s a 20 mile round trip). That’s 20 miles at the HMRC fuel expense of 0.45p per mile = £9 per round trip. You need to calculate how many times a year that journey is done (EOW + half of all school holidays)?

Why does the mother want ‘collect & pay’?

Only if the paying parent misses or is late with payments, will the CMS change to Collect and Pay.

Does she realise she’ll pay a fee to do this (as will your OH)? He’ll pay an additional 20% and she’ll pay 4%.

Who moved- if she did then go for the travel costs.
If he moved then a little cheeky to claim the added cost from his child to a situation he created.

Why has she decided to go thorough the CMS if he was always paying enough and on time? It seems like an odd thing to do. Is there a back story that you're not telling us?

Some receiving parents think they will get more money if they go through the CMS.

OP make sure your DP puts every months payment that he sends to her down as CMS payment on the transaction reference, and that he religiously keeps all his bank statements showing each month's payment until the child is at least 20.

If CMS query any missed payments from previous years then he will have proof that he paid her he can photocopy/print out and send to them.

Some women do it to get more. Not exactly difficult to believe.

But if she can get more through th cms then surely that would show that he wasn't paying enough....

i said on OP’s other post. My DH’s ex believed she would get more and was frankly pretty smug about it all. She said “I want more money I’m going to CMS”. DH told her she wouldn’t, he knew he was paying above what they’d say based on his wages. Her payments went down £200 pcm and she flipped her lid. So no, it doesn’t always work like that.

They won't do direct pay unless he misses a payment