I have been foolish and deluded and am a bear of no brain at all!
My woes start in 2011. My ex and I stopped behaving civilly. She refused to give me a marriage certificate so I could
apply for divorce and I stopped paying her 2k. Instead I paid her 750 a month labelled "interim support". The objective being that she would apply for spousal maintenance, and in the meantime I was paying for the children. I have several emails talking specifically about this.
Alas her Christian morals were stronger than my patience, and she never applied. I resolved the marriage certificate issue another way.
In Early Jan 2013, After I had applied for divorce, my ex then applied for spousal and
child maintenance. She was granted £900 spousal and £700 child maintenance. The court that the £900 could be taken from the joint account, and I was to pay the £700.
In Late Jan 2013, I lost my divorce, and the child and spousal maintenance fell away. At the same time I offered to allow full access of the income from the account to my wife, an amount of £2000 a month. The clear intention being to ensure the 900 and 700 were still covered. The £900 would still be her share, while the £700 would come from my share.
In Feb 2013 My wife applied for section 27 maintenance, and the court found I had already offered sufficient maintenance and dismissed her application. At that hearing the offer was fashioned into an undertaking in which she managed and received all the income from the joint account. She has labelled the entries for payment to herself from the joint account from me as "Money from X as per judge Y"
In Oct 2013 my ex applied to CMS after I managed to get a 6 week contract ( I had been out of contract from Nov 12), to get child maintenance. I fought this bitterly trying to persuade the CMS that my wife already receives maintenance in the form of the undertaking.
CMS took the stance that while they could see I was paying money, they could not consider this child maintenance and it was considered a donation to the ex.
In all this time however my view has been that I pay for my children as was directed in Jan 2013 (plus some), that is child maintenance of £700, but I now pay it by way of allowing my ex full access to all the income in the joint account.
In Sep 2013 I applied for divorce again, and got the Nisi in Feb 2014.
In Mar 2014 my ex applied for a variation to recalculate the csa based on dividends. This is still acceptable to me, as I was basing the amount I should pay on my total income anyway, and would bring the amount in-line with what I feel I am actually paying. £700. I have been discussing this dilemma with the CSA in the last few days.
So for me it is quite clear.
1) I have since 2011 being paying approximately £700 for the support of my children.
- There was a court order providing child maintenance of £700.
- The application for divorce caused the maintenance order to fall away.
- I proposed an immediate remedy to the problem which was rejected. Taken to a hearing, and then confirmed by court and put into an undertaking.
2) The amount of child maintenance is for me clearly traceable from each position of our divorce proceedings.
I have not been unable to convince the CMS that while the words are not correct, the spirit of what is being done is to pay for my children.
I am in the process of applying to cancel the undertaking based on the fact that I am now divorced and that the ex can apply for spousal maintenance herself, and the CMS will take care of child maintenance. However the court waiting times are into months, and christmas makes that worse, and in the meantime the CMS calculation is about to hit me with a £4800 backdated payment and a maintenance payment matching what I feel I am already paying.
In terms of affordability I am already overstretched on meagre income.
I would be glad if anyone had some useful advice.
