Hi,
I am posting this with reference to my husband and the maintenance he pays..
Brief history
We have been together for just over 3 years, My Husbands 1st marriage, 2 children they are 12 and 17 now, at the time of divorce roughly 7 years ago, it was agreed ( in court) my husband would pay maintenance for both the children@ £300 each, she had the house, etc... He has never missed a payment.
I am aware his ex wife receives various benefits, not sure what though..
After quite a few battles (sadly his children were turned against him in an incredibly destructive way....I find it embarrassing I am a woman sometimes) the children started seeing him, to the point his eldest now lives with us, which is great. He is still at school by the way.
My husband still pays maintenance for his daughter, who remains with her mother.
My questions are:
1/ Each parent has a child each, are there any grounds for making the maintenance null and void?
2/ My husbands financial circumstances have altered (due to this recession) he is not earning as he was when the payments were agreed, Is there any other way, other than going back to court, to address this issue...would the CSA be interested in listening? Is it actually anything to do with the CSA anyway? thought it might be as she is claiming certain benefits....not sure??!
3/ There is not any money for long drawn out court cases, which (bless her) it would be 🙂
So in short, is there any way this can be looked into/ addressed?
Many thanks in anticipation 🙂
Hi
It sounds like the original agreement was through a court order. The CSA can override that after 12 months, which was obviously a long time ago, plus the circumstances of the original order have changed. I am also assuming that it's unlikely that there is going to be any agreement between then, which would be necessary for a family based arrangement.
Either parent can approach the CSA and ask them to take on the case, so I would suggest that you (or your husband) check out the CSA calculator and work out what he should be paying her on the basis that she only has one child to look after, and if it's less than the CSA, then ask them to take the case, and stop paying money to her immediately (but start putting the money into a savings account as it will take the CSA a while to start up payments, and they are calculated from the day they open the case. While he is at it, if his son is still in full time non-advanced education, also tell them that his son lives with you and he'd also like to make a claim against her for maintenance (if she's on benefits, it's probably going to be 5 per week, but it's all something). Finally, assuming as befreo regarding education, has your husband started claiming child benefit for his son? If not, he can do so.
I shall look into the CSA assessment Thankyou 🙂 I think she has some sort of benefit top-ups as she does work part-time.....
Also,( whilst I am thinking about it!) My Husbands son has savings in a Building society account, she is the controller, he is able to get these funds when he is 18, but only if she decides to sign them over to him, which at the moment it doesn't look very hopeful .....any way, as she has these funds available to her and can draw upon them freely ( I know its my step-sons money, but she has done so already) would they/should they be taken into account with regards to benefits she is claiming?
And my Step-son has premium bonds ....No sign of those either.
I must just say....I am totally shocked that a female can treat her children in such a manner, it is disgusting....and yes I am angry for my step-son!
Hello TheDB's
I am Sarah, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand your husband agreed to pay child maintenance in court 7 years ago for his two children. Since making this arrangement there has been a change of circumstance and you would like to know how this affects your husband's payments.
When parents are going to court for other reasons such as a divorce, they sometimes make an agreement for child maintenance. This is called a Consent Order, which is an official ruling made by a court. Once a Consent Order has been agreed and authorised, your husband is legally liable to pay the amount the court has endorsed. However, the court does not monitor or collect payments. If either parent has a change to their circumstances it is possible to change the terms of their Consent Order but to do this they will need to get legal advice. This most commonly results in going back to court to set out the application on a standard form. The court will then consider any changes and make any amendments to the Consent Order if necessary.
If your husband has a Consent Order in place and he would like to pursue changing this he may wish to liaise with the solicitor that started the initial proceedings. Alternatively, Gov.uk has a service which may help your husband find a legal advisor or solicitor in his area. He can find this at https://www.gov.uk/find-a-legal-adviser.
You asked in your post if there was any other way your husband could address his change of circumstances without having to go back to court, such as, the Child Support Agency (CSA). Any Consent Orders that were endorsed after March 2003 are not legally subject to change unless they have been in place for at least 12 months. After 12 months either parent can apply to the CSA and the Consent Order will no longer be valid. However, if a Consent Order dates back to before April 2003, then the law does not allow parents to change over to the CSA. Only the courts have the ability to arrange child maintenance in such circumstances.
If your husband and his ex-wife both have a child living with each of them, they are both eligible to make a claim for child maintenance through the CSA. If they did this each case would be dealt with separately and a figure would be calculated based on their individual circumstances. Any child maintenance paid to the receiving parent does not affect income related benefits they receive as the law changed on this on 12 April 2010.
If your husband would like an indication of how much child maintenance may be payable using the CSA guidelines, he can use our online calculator. This is on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp.
The CSA have two schemes available. One is called Direct Pay and the other is called Collect and Pay. Direct Pay is where the CSA calculates child maintenance and then lets both parents decide how payments will be made. Once they have calculated the maintenance amount, the CSA will not contact either parent again unless their circumstances change or if they are told that payments have been missed.
The Collect and Pay service is where the CSA calculates, collects and enforces payments on a parents behalf, as some people prefer the security and help of third party involvement. If either parent decides to use the statutory maintenance service, then the paying parent's responsibility to pay child maintenance will start from around the time they are contacted by the CSA.
If your husband has got any questions about the CSA, or if he would like to set up child maintenance using their service, he can contact them directly. He can find their contact details and information about how they work out child maintenance online at http://www.gov.uk/childmaintenance.
You mentioned in another post that your husband's son has a savings account and premium bonds. You asked if these should be taken into account with regards to any benefits your husband's ex-wife is receiving. We are not experts in this area so you may wish to seek legal advice regarding this.
We have a sorting out separation web-app that your husband may find useful, it offers help and support to separated families. He can find this at: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
If your husband would like more information about his options, he can visit our website at www.cmoptions.org. If he would prefer a friendly and confidential chat, he can call our team on 0800 988 0988.