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Dear All:
I am after some advice. I work as a contractor. In court it was ruled I pay x amount/month (and took responsibility away from CMS). During that time I had had a contract for 2.5 years.
I subsequently lost that contract and was between contracts for around 2 months.
I let my ex-wife know this and when I restarted.
How would a court look upon this (because she has applied to court over this) - would they view it as I owe all monies despite employment status or would they view the 2 months as not payable due to the fact I had no income?
Many thanks for any advice
Rakeem
Hi there
I’m really not sure to be honest, it might depend on what savings you have, but I could be wrong. If it were the CMS you wouldn’t be expected to pay for the period you were unemployed, but a court order is a different matter.
Just to mention for future reference, with court ordered child maintenance, after 12 months the paying parent can open a payment claim with the CMS, which would override the court order. If you wanted to look into it, it would be worth using the CMS calculator to see if you would benefit from doing that.
All the best
Thanks for your great reply!
My case is going back to court anyway due to Mum's hostility, so we'll see what happens from there.
Rakeem
I doubt family court will deal with the financial side of things, unless it’s part of divorce proceedings, contact and maintenance are kept separate.
During a divorce, financial arrangements for maintenance can be made that can differ from maintenance arrangements made through the CMS. It can be more than a paying parent would pay with the CMS. One way round this would be to wait 12 months and then open a case with the CMS directly, the calculation they make would override the court ordered amount. Hope that make sense!
In my view, the court order is for a fixed amount, there is presumably no mention of whether you are employed, or for that matter whether you start earning more. If you haven't paid, your ex can go back to court for enforcement, at which point the court could make a decision that you don't pay because you weren't working, or that you pay in full, or anywhere between those. I agree with mojo, I would look at opening a case with CMS to override the court order in future.
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