Sorry to [censored] in as I'm not a dad myself...I'm not even male lol! I'm asking this for my brother. His has recently found out that his young son has a disibility. He is already paying for him. The mother doesn't allow him to have his son overnight and meets him once a week for a coffee to allow him to see his boy for an hour or so. She has contacted him and told him he needs to pay more now as his son has a disibility. I can't seem to find much info on it and the subject doesn't come up on the maintenance calculator.
Can you advise if she is right please? They currently have a personal agreement and don't go through the system.
It's not a normal situation either. He has two children from his previous 8 year marriage and pays £100 per month per child and has his girls up to three nights a week. His son was the result of a very short relationship and an unexpected pregnancy and he also pays £100 a month for him.
He is now in a long term relationship with a woman who also already has a child who lives with them. He is a fantastic dad who takes great care of his kids and takes full responsibility. He doesn't see his son overnight because the mother is scorned and angry at him. He would love to have him more.
So my main questions are a) does he have to pay more and b) if he does, can he use this as sway to get his son overnight?
Thank you so much
Hi and welcome to the forum
Having a disabled child doesn't increase his maintenance liability to my knowledge. The mother might be able to claim DLA for the child and subsequently qualify for carer's allowance and a Tax Credit disability premium though.
His liability would be calculated on 3 children and take into account the child living in his home too. Any liability would be split equally 3 ways.
It might be tricky to calculate if 2 have overnights and 1 doesn't, but I would advise giving Child Maintenance Options a call or working out a basic amount with this;
http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/
Contact and finances are two separate issues. If he wants to increase the contact with his son, if the mother won't agree this, he would first have to attempt mediation, and if that was unsuccessful, make an application to court.
All the best
I believe that the CMS can't always deal with cases where disability is involved if there are special expenses involved. In these cases, I think the court makes a decision on maintenance and the CMS can't then override this after 12 months, and the court order holds, and this maintenance can go on beyond the normal age when maintenance ends.
I would check with CMO on this, and probably also worth contact the children's legal centre for free advice on this http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com