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I have a 13 year old daughter and have joint access, i work 4 on 4 off so i have my daughter half of the year, i also have my gaughter extra days for holidays or if my ex is going away.
I pay half of everything that my daughter needs, school uniforms, trips etc. She has her own clothes at mone and her mum's.
My ex has now decided to get the CSA involved, even though we both have my daughter the same amount of nights i have been informed that i will still have to pay her approc £28 a week.
Now i am a bit confused as it is shared access, she received all the child benefit, i have all the petrol usage 20 miles a day taking my daughter to school so how come she needs maintenance, if anything my bills are higher than hers.
I have no problem in paying anything for my daughter but just confused as to why she is entitled to money and im not when my daughter is with me, surely it should work both ways.
Hi Gareth,
This is a question that comes up a lot, The way the maintenance is worked out is based on your earnings as I'm sure you know, they then deduct money as a percentage depending on the percentage of nights your child stays with you, so in regards to your case, your contribution would have been £56 per week but as your daughter stay with you for 50% of the time it gets reduced by 50% so ends up at £28
I can't say I feel this is a fair way of working it out as it seems the resident perant gets the child benifits and CSA while the non resident perant gets nothing and has to pay, but unfortunately until they change the system that is how its worked out.
I'm guessing that your ex won't agree to a personal arrangement any more?
Darren
I agree with Darren that in a 50/50 shared care, more account should be taken of the fact that costs are split but unfortunately the rules are as they are, though they have changed and there is a £7 per week reduction per child on top of the 50% reduction, which I assume that the CSA have taken into account (I reckon that if your takehome pay is around £470 per week, then the calculation is correct)
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