[Solved] reduced payments

This is tough one as what you should pay was court ordered and you changed that without the consent of the court.

How did you pay your son? if via a standing order then your only hope would be that the judge would accept this as proof you had continued to pay the amount but just in a different way, if it was in cash then you wouldn't have much evidence that it had been paid and you would have to fight it out.

It seems very un fair though to have this sent through

Did you pay through the Court? If so, It could just be that they have you on record as not paying. Technically it is a breach of the Court Order. If not, surely it has to be your ex starting it up.

And as GTTS said, did you pay your eldest by standing order?

If you pay via the court, can I suggest that you write to the court, confirm why the reduction, that your wife agreed, and ask your wife to write a similar letter (or write it for her and ask her to sign it!) and your final paragraph should be an apology that you meant no disrespect to the Court by making the reduction. You assumed because he was 18 you could pay it to him direct.

Thank you both for your response.

Yes, I paid by standing order directly to my son. In hindsight I should have got my ex wife signature or sought a change to the consent order. However, me and my ex wife have always remained on good terms for the children's sake so I never thought anything of it. What I am annoyed about is that he finished uni 2 years ago so its almost 5 years since I was paying the lesser amount, seems very unfair to pay money when my son was not even living there.

I now only pay £250pm for my youngest son who finishes college next year and he will not be going to uni. He works 20 hours pw - does anyone know if I could get my payments reduced on this basis?

Thanks to all for your help.

Sorry, Andy, I wasn't very clear...when the Court ordered you to pay the original amount, did you pay that through the Court (i.e. before uni)

I cant answer the second half of your question but there is a Child Maintenance Expert on here who I am sure will be able to.

I don't know the full answer to this, but look at it from a court's point of view. Why has it taken your ex 2 years to bring this claim - especially when you go to court and show them that at exactly the same time you reduced payments to her, you started paying money to your son. That's going to go a long way towards backing up your case. I think you have nothing to lose by going along to court and defending your case - as far as I know, a court order can be set aside if both parties consent (assuming it's not a safeguarding issue, which this isn't), and I would say that the above is evidence that you both did.

Hi Andy140166

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand that you have a Consent Order in place regarding child maintenance for three children. When your son went to university you paid your son directly, however, you have now received a letter requesting you to pay £4950. You would like to know if you need to pay this figure and if your payments could be reduced as you are only paying for your youngest son.

We cannot answer your question for you as we are not legal experts. Consent Order is an official ruling made by a court. If you would like to pursue changing your Consent Order you may wish to speak to the solicitor who originally started them proceedings. You may wish to look at this link https://www.gov.uk/find-a-legal-adviser to see where you stand on this.

To find out more about how Child Maintenance Options can help you visit www.cmoptions.org or call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday.

I hope this helps.

William