What Does Child Support Cover?

I disagree Mathis. child maintenance options states ''Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards a child''s everyday living costs.'' How is that not rent or household bills?

About 80 glasses of large wine a month down the pub for the ex harridan

All the best
HRH xx

Thank you all, helping to open my eyes.

The cost of rent or mortgage etc is covered by SM not by CM.

Ahh right, providing you get SM

Jslgb and maisymoos are right: child maintenance does cover things like rent and household bills. CM is supposed to cover all aspects of caring for the child, including keeping a roof over their head, which is in itself an additional cost over that required for one person. If you have a child living with you you need more space than if you live alone - SM might cover some of the rent etc. in order to maintain the ex spouse''s housing, but CM deals with what the child needs.

So the list jslgb and maisymoos gave at the beginning of this thread is a good starting point.

However, if the mortgage is in joint names then you remain liable so you might want to continue to pay your share rather than default. You will also have less of a claim to the house or its value in any settlement if you haven''t paid the mortgage for a long time.

best wishes,
Sadie

According to CSA/DWP 2011 statistics the average amount of child maintenance liable to be paid through the CSA is £33.50 per week or £22.50 if all cases with a weekly assessment of zero are included in the average. That wouldn''t cover much more than the cost of food for one child.