What EXACTLY is child maintenance for ?

Hi,

10 months with no payments, 4 months with no child benefit since girlfriend's ex applied for it.

Her ex has just bought himself a new car.

The argument is around the amount of money he spends on the kids, he reckons he pays the equivalent of the CSA calculated figure so what's the point in giving it to her to pay the same bills. Her argument is he spends it on sports and activities not on clothes, school uniform and equipment etc, that sports clubs are extras not basics.

It's 50/50 shared care. As far as I can work out the CSA figure takes that into account so what is the calculated figure intended to provide for ?

We've looked at it the other way, with her becoming the non resident parent and giving up child benefit. The CSA amount due to him in that scenario is tiny.

So what would he be contributing to as the non resident parent, that she doesn't seem to need to contribute to if she were the non resident parent ?

Is it just a fair apportioning of the non resident parent's income based on what could have been spent if the children were there full time ?

Mark

Where contact is 5050, personally, i dont feel its right for either parent to claim CM, however the parent that does get CB should be paying things like uniforms etc out of that, to ensure balance. In my opinion, your partner shouldnt claim, however, next school term she should say to her ex that as he recieves a boost to his household income in the way of CB/CTC then HE should subsidise more everyday costs and pay for uniforms, school dinners.

Ethically i dont think its fair for the CSA to make a judgement in 5050 care cases tbh. It completely undermines the purpose.

A word of advice and warning however, if your partner does apply to the CSA and her ex is in reciept of the child benefit, HE will be deemed the PWC in almost all cases.

sorry, just read that its 'kids' not kid.

why dont each of them claim CB for one child each, and each agree not to claim CM off eachoether???

we wnet through the calculator seeing if there was a trade off point where each could counter claim and the net was nil.

But she earns so little, her maintenance doesn't go above £17 a week regardless, he earns so much it doesn't come below £50 ish a week.

If there was a better balance where he spent more of his earnings on the kids it would be fair not to claim anything.

Eldest has just packed 'our' clothes to go off to her dad's for a week because she doesn't have anything to wear at his.

To answer the question, child maintenance is a contribution towards all the costs of raising a child. Before the CSA existed courts would take all the household's living expenses and divide it by the number of persons living in the household to arrive at a CM figure for each child.

I'm not entirely sure what your point is but child support is a very blunt instrument and fairness doesn't always come into it. Whichever parent receives CB invariably can claim CM from the other parent. There are then deductions from the basic CSA rate for sharing care. Responsibility for how the money is spent is then down to the parent in receipt of CM.

If the CSA aren't involved it's down to parents to agree between them what is fair, but this can't happen unless parents get on reasonably well and can compromise.