Dodging child maintenance

We''re in the final stages of reaching a financial settlement and my future ex wants me to agree to child maintenance payments without me seeing his April 2015 P60. Based on the April 2014 P60, he would be paying me £600/m child maintenance for 3 children, according to the child support agency criteria.

I''m not asking for anything else although I earn much less than he does as I work part-time around the children. I''m afraid he''s played a nasty trick and started paying more into his pension to reduce this maintenance. Is this a common thing and is there anything I can do? Every penny is going to be crucial for my future life. I''d appreciate any advice.

If you can''t agree on CM between you, then either of you are at liberty to open a case with the CMS; doing so often creates further hostility however.

From your previous posts, your ex has the children 6 nights out of 14, is this still the case?

Remember, CM is only a contribution to the costs of raising children and he will have his own costs for the children while they are with him. Is there any way you could increase your own earnings so you have more of an income?

Thanks for your reply. We are still living under the same roof and I do all the child care right now but we have a tentative agreement for him to have them 6/14. I will still have the kids every day after school though until he finishes work. I took on extra hours when the divorce process started but no prospect for any more. He says I should work full time (poor kids!)

It seems unfair he can line his own pocket more because he doesn''t want to pay me any more than the Absolute minimum. I will have to pay for all the kids expenses from the money - and they do a lot of activities - so I will be doing all the organizing, shopping, ferrying etc etc. I''m fuming basically!!

I''m not sure how the new rules work for Child maintenance as mine was sorted through the CSA.
Regarding you stbx playing nasty tricks mine did the same he discovered the more he topped up his pension the less CM he would have to pay! I wasn''t happy as you can imagine as all I wanted to do was provide a home for my kids - my ex didn''t see them at all.
I''m not sure under the new rules if the pension top up payments would reduce cm ? Have you spoken to anyone at the child maintenance department?
On the other hand - which doesn''t help you now - if he''s topping up his pension would that mean more in the pot for you?? It did in my case but it depends on the scheme and how that''s being dealt with.
Sorry I''m not much help but I would speak to someone at CMS to get their opinion as I''m not sure how CM is worked out under the new system.

I can understand why you are not happy, but he isn''t obliged to pay any more than the statutory amount which is 19% of his gross weekly income. Anything over and above that is voluntary and by agreement.

It''s a sad and unfortunate consquence of family break-down that there often isn''t the same money as when the family were intact, and hard choices have to be made so that we can live within our new financial means. Not fair, I know (my younger daughter was a promising ballet dancer, but afer our seperation, I was no longer able to afford the fees, and she had to stop attending the dance school).

Thanks ladies, your replies are very much appreciated.

I''m only asking for the minimum but he wants to reduce it even more, which is maddening. Meanwhile he''s just booked his third foreign holiday this year! I guess this is life as the lower earner...

Gillian48, I will check up about the extra pension contributions just to be sure. Maybe it won''t be as bad as I fear.

My advice would to accept the current offer, and have it written up into a family based arrangement form (you can get one here - www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Child-Maintenance.html) with the understanding it is reveiewed every 12 months.

When the children are in his care, it will be his responsibility to do the transporting to and from activities. You still have to do the shopping and organising, but you would ahve to do that anyway - he will also have his own shopping and organising to do, don''t forget.

Sometimes, it''s worth taking a break from things, and coming back to them with a refreshed mind and view - and knowing which battles are worth fighting for. (And don;t get het up over things that really aren''t worth it - it''s not relevent how many holidays he has in a year).