Please define what "Child Maintenance" Covers

A question about : Please define what "Child Maintenance" Covers

Can somebody point me to a definition of what costs child maintenance should cover and not cover. I don't mind paying but unfortunately I have a greedy vindictive ex (who left me by the way) who moans about how much she spends on milk, shampoo and conditioner etc and expects me to pay more! What she will be getting is about Ј800 a month for two children, plus I have a third at university to consider as well. Can anybody also point me to any information as to what the average amount of child maintenance paid is, and also how many NRP's don't pay at all? And outside what I pay her as child maintenance what right has she to any other financial arrangemants I make with my children? Thanks

Best answers:

• Unfortunately it covers whatever she wants it to cover! Apart from things like, rent, food, clothes, it often covers booze, fags and drugs! And you can do sod all about it! (Bitter? - Me?)
• The legal definition of child maintenance is that it should be a contribution to the PWC's household:
  The Child Support Legislation governs the level of child maintenance that should be paid by a natural parent who is absent from the child's household (the non-residential parent) to the parent with care.
  It does not cover:
• step children
• school fees
• where the absent parent is resident outside the UK
• if the parent with care is resident outside the UK
• if the child is resident outside the UK

If you choose to put any other contribution into the household then that is up to you - but the calculation that is made from the CSA is the contribution that it would have been deemed that you may have fairly made had you both been still together (before everyone starts to complain - thats not my view either, just the rules as they stand!)
So the quick answer is she can complain as much as she likes but you are not legally required to pay any more than you currently do.

• Got the ex wife from hell here. Not only getting 20% but wanting extra contributions as well for what she calls extra items!.. Thing is she's already receiving a good salary but I receive more, but when I transfer my 20% contribution to her income she is the onme with the higher income.
• Tell her she's getting her 20% and that's it and then tell her if she's not happy then to close the file on the CSA and you can go back to the way it was.
  She can't have it all bloody ways and you are just going to have to tell her that. Keep all your corre from the CSA to show your kids to show that you aren't being a mean Dad. As I have said before, the oldest 2 are young adults and am sure can handle a bit honest talking from their Dad.
  If I was 19 and I knew my Dad was going through this then I would be mortified and would rather he didn't pay me and I went out and got a job to supplement my income. Very few students have their Dad giving them an allowance and she has been very lucky up till now and it is her Mum's doing that this needs to change.
• She's actually asking me to confirm in writing what extraneous expenses over and above my 20% contribution I w ill be paying..
• You then say 'I don't think so'! lol. Your obligation is the 20% end of.
• She'#s also sent me a spreadsheet demanding to know the exact day that my money hits her bank account. I thought the CSA had told me to pay a certain amount weekly but I don't remember any such stipulation that she had to receive it on a certain day.
• She doesnt - in fact if it went through the CSA themselves rather than direct it can take up to 3 weeks to get from the NRP to the PWC! Although you have to pay a set amount weekly, normally the PWC gets one monthly payment, so if she is not happy with weekly payments offer to pay her on a set day every month (and then duck lol!)
  Strikes me she is madder than a box of frogs! Either that or is being somewhat of a control freak :rolleyes:
  Send her the CSA leaflet outlining your responsibilities, that you have fulfilled your legal obligation and it is only if YOU choose to pay for anything extra that you can, not that you have to.
  There are many PWC on here that get no help whatsoever from the NRP so she should be grateful for what she has.
• You summed her up exactly!
• Ј800pm is a lot of money, i take it you clear over Ј4000pm then? (Ј70k+ salary)
  If it was me, i would be sticking a healthy amount of that into my pension fund, to reduce the amount payable.
  Do you see the kids at all, do they stay over? You get a reduction for that. Do you have any other kids you pay for, or look after? Again you get a discount for that.
  Instead of giving her more, i'd personally be looking into ways to give her less. She sounds like she deserves it, fight fire with fire.
  A lot of people end up going SE to dodge CSA is the answer to your question, either that or they just refuse to pay, acknowledge they are the parent or simply just go missing and off the radar. Some people even give up work in order not to pay.
• And quite right so...why should a mortgage get taken into account? If it did then there would be many a man shackling a huge mortgage round his neck so that less CSA would be paid.
  I am on CSA1 and my ex took a huge home improvement loan out 3 years after my daughter was born but that gets taken into account - think that's fair??
  The new system - CMEC - will be 12% of a gross amount. This is probably because things like you suggest - whacking a great load into a pension - have been getting done.
• I agree a father should pay for his child but in todays world the cost of living is so high, that a 15/20/25% deduction of net wages could mean a father leaving his job due to it not being financially viable.
  Who then suffers? The father, the mother and his child, and for what??
  This is very real.... Me, myself, i know of 2 men who have done just exactly that, im sure there are thousands if not tens of thousands of fathers nationwide who have done exactly the same.
  If i had to pay 25% of my wage, i too would have to give up work as i do not have 25% left over after all my monthly deductions. I simply would not be able to put food on the table.
  Expenditure like mortgages should definitely be taken into account, especially at the moment where cost of living is through the roof. My mortgage alone is just over 40% of my take home wage.