Demand for maintenance arrears

My husband lost his buisness last year, we had advice of this is May 09 and it has taken a year to get the administrators to tie things up. We currently have a winding up oreder and the bank have advised they are pulling my husbands personal guarantees.
My husabnd advised his ex wife last May of thees problems and asked her Lawyer for a varitaion of the order ( £800 pm month per child x 2 children) He offered to pay what he could which has amount to clothes shoes, and all there school stuff plus £200 per month. ( to date since last june we have spent just over £7000 on the children). He sent numerous offers to her lawyers and copies of the winding up oredre and letter from his accontants.
In march he applied to the CSA and recieved a nil rating.
We have now recieved a demand via court for £16000 for maintenenace arrears ( June - March ), and have asked for a court date.
We have really paid what we can - he has nothing left and any money we have is in my savings. I try and do as much for the children as I can and buy them clothes and pay for holidays etc.
His ex does not work and claims that she is claiming benefit.
We have his two children at boarding school, with help from his
family who are for the moment paying the fees.
My question is what can we do about this £16000, she knows we dont have it .... She has a Clean Break in 07 which gave her a significant lump sum ( almost £2mill), albeit tied up in a house.
We have no money left for legal costs as the divorce took 5 years and almost £100K in fees !

Hi


Welcome to wiki , how she managing to claim benefits with a 2 mill pot ?

Regards to paying maintnenace it is my understanding you can't just reduce it you need to apply to court to ask for a variation to have it reduced.

Thanks for the welcome..
She CLAIMS she is getting benefits but that is only what she says, she also rents out a flat in her house and bedrooms, but I guess she deosnt declare this. The £2 mill or more is tied up in the house which is now for sale at 2.8 mill
When this 1st happened he wrote to her lawyer asking for a variation by consent, with all the details of what happened and how he was proposing to still pay a contribution and that as soon as things were back he would resume maintenance. They challenged every statement and it ended with both the bank ( the RBS !!) and his accountant writing to her lawyer with very detailed accounts of what has happened... he then heard absolultly not a word his offer letters ( he kept on sending them ) were unreplied to and eventually in march he went to the CSA and got a nil rating. Five weeks later we got a court demand for maintenance arrears (£16K). If he had the money he would give it to her - but short of borrowing it or adding to our already huge mortgage we cannot - and with the world in the state it is who knows when a job will appear around the corner

Seems like he was paying under a court order and not CSA - why? How come she ended up with so much and your husband nothing? Whats her reason for saying she is on benefits? Report anonymously that she has rental income - its the taxpayers money she is abusing if on benefits.