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hi everyone , i have a 5year old son who for 3 years i didnt see , my ex left the area and moved around the country purposely avoiding me, for those 3years i was searching for him via a solicitor , after a while i found out that she was living in a refuge as she made a bad decision regarding a relationship and the man turned out to be violent, because of the admission to a refuge legally i wasnt allowed to know where this was. After a long 3 years he was found and social services got involved and established contact between us which has been happening now for roughly 10 months . he has been and still is on a child protection plan for neglect , i pay maintenance voluntarily into my ex's bank account weekly and have contact with him every two weeks from friday to sunday and all is going exellent , i wanted to know apart from paying the ex cash into the bank , legally can i buy him clothes intead each week to the value of my maintenance payments as long as i keep the receipts as proof ? theyre have been a number of times where i have collected him in age inapropriate clothing ( between 3-5 years to big ) , no underwear , and wearing his sisters underwear , ripped trainers , im just very upset that the money im paying for his food , essentials , CLOTHING is not being spent on him or what he needs and wanted to know if vouchers or me buying his clothes is an option ??????? thank you
Hi
I'm afraid that I don't think you can do this unless you go for a family based arrangement instead of using the CSA but your ex would have to agree, which I doubt she would. I will ask the CMO to comment on this.
With her moving around constantly, and with the condition your son is in, I would seriously consider talking to children's services about your son, and make sure that they are aware that your ex may move to avoid monitoring. Would you be able to look after your son? If so, it may be worth looking at residence.
Hi I'm Sarah, a consultant at Child Maintenance Options.
You haven't mentioned whether you have a CSA case or a family-based arrangement (where you sort out child maintenance between yourselves). If you have a CSA case, then anything you spend on clothing cannot be counted towards your payments. If however the payments are through a family-based arrangement, then this would be entirely up to you and your child's other parent, as paying for clothing etc can be included in the arrangement.
I hope this information helps.
Sarah
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