CSA payments do not take into account childcare

Why don''t you have a share of his pension? If you split the proceeds of the house equally and you have the children and no pension then you have been shortchanged.

If you don''t have a Consent Order filed in court then nothing is legally binding and either of you can come back for more. At the moment it looks to me as though you should be doing so as he doesn''t really seem to need all he has got so far and you certainly should have a share of the pension or something to offset this. Until you have a court order you are financially tied to each other and this is not really a good way to live your life.

Best wishes,
Sadie

Hello All,

Thank you

My Ex earns nearly 50K, so definitely enough to pay me his contribution of the childcare

We didnt have a consent order at the time as I divorced him for unreasonable behaviour through quickiedivorce.com which ironically actually took about 9 months !

I wanted things to be as amicable as possible since he is a very abusive person prone to violence. This is why I couldnt cope with how he would react if I tried to get anything out of him (plus I couldnt afford a proper solicitor at the time)

I am going to take him to court now and I am getting the abuse and threats again now 4 years later but at least now I have a partner who is very supportive,

This was instigated because they took out a massive mortgage and his fiancee is going to be on stat maternity pay from now so I think they stretched things too much with the mortgage. She is now going back to work in August and is in banking, so pretty well off. The fact they have splashed out on an extravagant lifestyle which they cannot afford properly is hardly grounds for him refusing to pay his contribution. I''m not interested in his pension, just half the money towards childcare since we both have to work,

The fact he will have to spend money on childcare for this other baby is not down to me - I mean if they couldnt afford to have this child they should have thought about that first (but she earns over 100K plus bonuses so I''m sure they can afford to pay for their own child ok)

Thanks
Anna

You should be interested in his pension. It''s a good one. My ex got a slice of mine after 13 years and he already had a less good one of his own. You need childcare now but you also need to secure your own financial future.

Best wishes,
Sadie

I think you would have to pursue this down the spousal maintenance route, although this may be complicated if you also have a new partner. It may be irritating to see, but his fiance''s income is nothing to do with you other than what she contributes to her share of the bills. However, of you new partner lives with you or intends to do, this is usual a factor where sm stops.
From what I understand, no court will impose child maintenance over the authority of the csa unless there are very special circumstances, such as serious disability in a child.
I also think you should probably get a share of his pension

Hi all,

It''s not child maintenance I''m interested in, I just reported him recently to the CSA but my solicitor advised me that childcare costs are not under their jurisdiction but since we didnt do a consent order and he has been paying me half towards childcare for 4 years I should be able to get this in court by requesting an upward variation

Yes I know his fiancee''s salary is not taken into consideration. They have however got a joint bank account and the mortgage will be in their joint name showing he has a lot more equity than me.

His salary is better than mine too at about 50K.

With regards to my partner, like his partner doesnt have anything to do with the finances, equally I don''t see why mine would either.

My partner does live with me but he has been unemployed now for nearly 6 months having lost his job before Christmas so I dont know why this would go against me ,

I don''t want to get into having money from his pension, as I also have savings, but these are towards getting a depost for a house as I am still renting. I just want half the childcare as he has always paid from day 1,

Thanks
Anna

I understand that you might not like the answers you are getting but the realities of it are this:
1. A court will not overrule the CSA
2. The CSA will only impose the set rule as stated on their site (20% for 2 kids, etc). This is intended to cover ALL aspects of raising the child, including childcare. If you are in receipt of child related benefits then this should also be partially used towards childcare (if you give your ex a proportion of these towards the children''s care when they are with him then I suggest you stop this).
3. The only way you will be able to get money out of your ex is to either take him to court to get a larger share of the assets from your marriage, or apply for spousal maintenance. It would normnally be unlikely that you get SM as you are living with another man as his wife, although his unemployment may be considered a mitigating factor.
4. Your ex has a right to carry on with his life and have another child, with this comes his right to have his contributions reassessed.

Given the above, I think your best course of action is to go for Ancillary Relief and request a larger share of the assets. I don''t know how much luck you will have focussing on his post-separation assets, some judges accept this, others don''t. More likely you would look at your marital assets only.

Hi again

The money I get from my ex doesnt cover the childcare costs. I am not looking for them to over rule the CSA costs either

It wouldn''t also make sense for the CSA costs to include the cost of childcare and the CSA confirmed to me that they don''t factor that into their calculations, as they already have over 100 variables to consider with this.

For example, say that childcare costs £1000 a month , getting only £260 maintenance for having my son over 75% of the time and then having to pay more for looking after my son most of the time and also forking out for this as an extra expense wouldn''t make sense.

Many parents don''t have childcare costs to build in to this equation

I don''t mind getting feedback which isnt maybe what I want to hear

However, I did pay a solicitor £100 and he informed me that I have a very good case to get him t pay half the childcare when it goes to court . I am going to complete a Form A and go from there

I don''t know if you are also a solicitor, I am not sure from the forum . If you are then maybe my solicitor has given me the wrong information. He didnt seem to think that me living with my partner had any bearing on the case as it comes down to the income of my ex and I, and not our partners.

I have nothing against him having another family - but this has no bearing on him paying his contribution - especially when he demonstrates he has the money to fund a private golf club - if he doesnt have the money to pay for his son adequately then he shouldn''t be using that money for these luxuries

If my solicitor has advised me wrong then I need to look into getting a refund,

Thanks
Anna