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My partner left me after 14 yrs for another man, after the dust settled our daughter decided to live with me. After a year or so she got married and then left her job to move away and so cut here maintenance as we had agreed to pay 10% of her wage as she was having her 3 nights a week she said she would carry on paying 10% of what ever she could earn. She now only gets to see her daughter every 5 months or so and has just announced she is pregnant and had to give up work therefore stopping all maintenance with immediate effect. Can anyone tell me where I stand with this as I am struggling to keep a roof above our head myself.
Hi Daz
Welcome to the forum
You should click on the Child Maintenance link at the bottom of this page and see if they can help
Whilst she will argue that there is no income - if the tables were turned I am sure you would still have to pay something
No, I'm afraid she's right - if she has no income, then she is not liable to pay any maintenance - if she is on benefits, then she will be liable for the (current) flat rate of #5 per week. Is there any chance her new partner is self employed and paying her an income? If so, then she is still liable, but otherwise, there's nothing you can do about it I'm afraid (I've tried, believe me)
Hello,
Thank you for your post. I'm William, the Child Maintenance Options Consultant. All parents have a legal responsibility to financially support their children. Even if they have a low income or they are on benefits. They still have to pay a percentage of their income.
Private agreements, which are also called family-based arrangements, cannot be legally enforced, as they are for parents to sort out between themselves, with no involvement from anyone else. If you wanted some help to try and get your family arrangement back on track, Child Maintenance Options might be able to help you. We offer guidance and support to help you talk to your ex- partner and reach an agreement with each other. Or perhaps there is a friend or relative who could speak to her on your behalf?
As I'm sure you already know, it's much easier to sort out child maintenance without the CSA or the courts involved and it usually keeps things more amicable in general.
If that's not possible, then the CSA will work out your child maintenance payments using a set formula, which will be based on your ex-partners income. Some other factors are taken into account, such as the number of children that need child maintenance, if your ex-partner has overnight care and if she currently lives with any other children.
For more information about how the CSA work out child maintenance, visit https://www.gov.uk/child-support-agency
You can also get an idea of what your payments will be using the Child Maintenance Calculator: http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp
We have a web application that you may find useful, it offers help and support to separating families. The link is: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation
For more information about family-based arrangements and access to useful tools and forms online you can visit www.cmoptions.org, or if you'd prefer a confidential chat you could call the Child Maintenance Options team on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).
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