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Hey guys,
My first post! Am divorced and paying maintenance to my ex for my three boys. I recently was served with redundancy notice, so am no longer earning and therefore can't pay maintenance. Totally understand that if I claim benefits or get a new job I should pay something, as well as looking after them at the times I do so. I've paid maintenance on a voluntary basis using the CSA guidelines.
However, the ex is trying to change how often I look after them to "compensate" her for the reduction in her income whilst I can't pay maintenance. She's proposing a variety of changes, including having them for additional time during the week (not overnight) and extra school runs. Now I don't have an issue with looking after my kids, but I need to balance looking for a new job and looking after them. However I can't find anywhere any sort of legislation, case law or guidelines that say if my circumstances change, so too do the care arrangements.
Can anyone help me out with some information or a link to some government guidance please?
Cheers
R
hi and welcome. It's very simple in a way - the law cannot, and will not, force you to have contact. Even a defined contact order only says when a child must be made available for contact, not that the NRP has to have contact. In other words, your ex cannot insist you have contact when you don't want to, so if you have to go for interviews etc, then politely decline on that occasion. However, if you can have them more often, I would do so, and keep a good record of how often you are doing so. If, when you get a job (good luck with that, by the way) and you want to maintain that level of contact, you have a better chance of getting that if it goes to court.
Cheers dude. That's what I thought, but needed someone else to tell me! It gets tiresome after a while when you have to manage constantly shifting goalposts 🙂
Thanks also for your kind words. Am hoping the job situation sorts itself out fairly soon.
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