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I divorced 7 years ago just after my 7 year old was born. (I have been informed anonymously that he is not mine but I treat him as if he is)
My ex wife has a son to someone else but there had been no contact with his biological father. He is now 19 but has lived with me since his mother kicked him out of her council home 5 years ago. He remained in full time education till the end of last year. He has found a part time job but has a cannabis habit and a social phobia for which he receives CBT cognitive behaviour therapy.
I have a 16 year old son who is continuing in full time education who was also kicked out from my ex my ex wifes home 5 years ago.
Both these boys live with me and have done so for 5 years without any form of assistance from my ex and only recent continued contact with the boys in the last year.
I live with my current partner and we have got a mortgage only in her name.
We are due to marry at the end of August.
My ex is in a council house and has had to go onto job seakers allowance.
The DWP has just got in touch for me to fill in a form.
My questions are:-
will I be expected to pay csa for 1 child if I have had the other 2 for the past 5 years and continue to do so,
will they expect my current partner to contribute by way of a joint income despite contributing to my 2 boys already with us,
if we marry how will that affect the situation,
we currently are in our overdraft each month and have been for the past 12 months.....will they still expect payment.
My work committments are mainly weekends and therefore can only see my 7 year old mid week overnight. there is a court order for alternate weekends.
Any advice will be received gratefully.
Hello Battygb
Thank you for your post. I am William, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand you would like some information about child maintenance and how it is worked out.
You have asked if you are expected to pay for a child that may not be yours, if you have two other children living with you aged 16 and 19. Under the child support legislation, child maintenance is generally sought from the natural or adoptive parent. Regular child maintenance payments must be made until a child is 16 years old, or 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (A-level or equivalent), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid. Therefore, you may also be able to arrange child maintenance for your 16 year old child who lives with you.
If your ex-wife made an application to the Child Support Agency (CSA), they would ask you if you accept parentage of your son. If you have doubts and you were to deny it, the CSA will look into the reasons why and would ask you to provide evidence to support your denial. They would not ask you to pay child maintenance until the dispute had been resolved. You can find out more about what happens when someone denies they are the parent of a child online at www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
You also asked if the CSA would take into account your current partners income. The CSA works out child maintenance using the paying parent's income, which includes earnings, money from an occupational or personal pension and tax credits. They use the amount of income left after deductions such as Income Tax, National Insurance and any money paid into a personal pension scheme, but this does not include your new partner's income regardless of whether your are married. There are many other factors that the CSA would take into account when calculating child maintenance such as, if the paying parent lives with any other children, however, the CSA needs to see proof that Child Benefit is being paid for the children before they will take them into account.
No-one has to arrange child maintenance through the CSA. If you can reach an agreement with your ex-wife, you can make a family-based arrangement. This agreement is made without involving the CSA or needing to disclose personal information to a third party. It can be the quickest and easiest way of arranging child maintenance and you and your ex-wife can decide between you who will provide what for your children. It can include money and other kinds of support, for example providing school uniforms. A Family-based arrangement is not legally binding but it is flexible to meet the needs of the parents and the children involved.
To help you both reach an agreement, we have some useful tools and guides such as a discussion guide, which can help you plan your conversation with your ex-wife about money and we also have a family-based arrangement form, which is not a legally binding document but can help put your agreement on a more formal basis. You can find these at www.cmoptions.org.
If you would like an idea how much child maintenance the CSA could work out for you, you can use our online calculator. This is on our website at www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator. You may wish to use this figure as a starting point to negotiate a family-based arrangement.
If you are unable to reach an agreement with your ex-wife and you were to use the service of the CSA they have two schemes available called Direct Pay and Collect and Pay. Direct Pay is where the CSA calculates child maintenance and then lets you and your ex-wife decide how payments will be made. Once they have calculated the maintenance amount, the CSA will not contact you or your ex-wife again unless your 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 your behalf, as some people prefer the security and help of third party involvement. If you decide to use the statutory maintenance service, then your responsibility to pay child maintenance will start from around when you contact the CSA or they contact you.
If you feel that the CSA would not work for either of you, you can put in place a Consent Order, which is an official ruling made by a court. To arrange a Consent Order, you and your ex-wife would need to agree how much child maintenance will be paid and how often before going to court and there may be legal costs associated to this.
You mentioned that your ex-wife's 19 year old son has a cannabis habit. If you need any support on this, Talk to Frank gives free and confidential information on drugs. You can find more information from their website at website: www.talktofrank.com
We have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful, it offers help and support to separated families. You can find this at: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
To find out more about how Child Maintenance Options can help you visit: http://www.cmoptions.org. If you would prefer a friendly and confidential chat, please give the team a call on 0800 988 0988.
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- Shout – text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258
