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My ex wife and I agreed maintainence for the children at 800 euro a month based on my salary of 79000 pa but with the stipulation that should financial circumstances change this would be reviewed. I remarried and am living in UK where by salary is considerably lower (1/3 less) and the items listed as children's needs (e.g. afterschool care) no longer exist. Children are 20 and 17 respectively. Given the current exchange rate and drop in salary I can no longer afford this and wrote to advise her of this as per our agreement. The last time I suggested a decrease she took me to court to try to prove we weren't legally divorced and cost me £6000. Is there any way I can prevent another expensive court case?
You don't say where your wife lives - I assume it's within Europe.
I would say that the CSA calculation applies - in which case your 20 year old doesn't count at all, and your 17 year old only counts for another year anyway (assuming she is still in education), and the CSA says 15% of your takehome salary (there are other deductions possible if you have step children, have to travel to see her etc, and discounting special requirement) - on the basis of around 64,000 euro pa salary, you'd need to pay 9,600 euros per year, or 800 per month - about what you are paying now.
My thoughts are that it's worth continuing paying until she's 18 (actually, I think it's until the September after her 18th birthday), at which point the CSA (and I believe the courts) wouldn't be interested.
Thanks for that. My ex lives in the Republic of ireland while I live in UK. As I said she won't consider a reduction in contributions even though she earns more than I do and is insisting that as the court has ruled that the 800 euro be paid a month until the children are 23 then this is the case even though I can't even afford to put fuel in my car to get to work. We had a divorce agreement in Germany (where we orginally lived) after the court case in Dublin which said that if there was a change in financial circumstances then we would let the other know of a change in payments but she won't consider this. Which country's laws do I follow- Irleand, where she lives and where she obtained the court ruling about maintainance; the UK where I live or Germany where we had a financial agreement before the divorce. I'm confused and broke
OK, I'd say you need to get some legal advice about this - I'm not sure the CSA rules apply if your ex is in ROI - may be worth having a word with the CSA to see what they think. I'm also not sure what the situation is with regards the court order in Germany - certainly I think paying maintenance until your children are 23 is generous to say the least - is this purely maintenance for the children, or is there an element of maintenance for your ex included? If it's for the children only, I'd say that, if the CSA does cover this, then you should pay until September 2010 and then consider stopping payments to your ex and pay directly to your children to support them.
The above is what I would be considering if I was in your position, but I stress, you need proper legal advice before you change anything.
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