Hi Fairtradebananas
Thank you for your post. I am William the
child maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.
Child maintenance is a contribution towards the cost of bringing up a child and this includes not only such items as food and clothing but also it is a contribution towards the home that the child lives in and the associated costs of running that home. You can find more information on what child maintenance covers on our website at
www.cmoptions.org/en/maintenance/index.asp.
If your child maintenance is via a family-based arrangement, there are no strict rules to stick to as there is not involvement from the courts or the statutory child maintenance services. Therefore, both you and your wife have the freedom to decide the terms of your own arrangement, such as what child maintenance will cover.
A family-based arrangement can include money and other kinds of support, such as you directly paying for things that your children may need. Although family-based arrangements are not legally-binding, many parents prefer them because of their flexibility and how easy the arrangement can be reviewed, such as if you or your wife’s circumstances change. You can find more information on family-based arrangements on our website at
www.cmoptions.org/en/family/index.asp.
If you decided to set up an arrangement via the Child Maintenance Service, child maintenance is paid by the paying parent to the parent that is in receipt of the Child Benefit payments. The paying parent would legally be obliged to pay what has been calculated. It would be the paying parent’s decision if they wished to make any further contributions on top of their child maintenance payments. In addition, the receiving parent’s income is not taken into account when working out child maintenance. You can find more information on using the Child Maintenance Service on Gov.uk at
www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
If child maintenance is set up via the courts in the form of a
Consent Order (for parents that live in England and Wales), both parties need to agree how much child maintenance will be paid and how often, before going to court. Parents can agree this either privately between themselves, through a solicitor or a mediator.
Once an agreement has been made, parents can then ask the court to approve and authorise the Consent Order. This usually happens when parents are going to court for other reasons, such as arranging a divorce or dividing their property or other assets.
For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at
www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday.
Regards
William
