Child care costs

Our Consent Order was all agreed - 15% of my net income until our son is 18, 65% 35% share of house in her favour that cannot be sold until our son is at least 18, 50% of the mortgage until our son is 5, 25% until he goes to secondary school, wife can continue to use my car and so on.

Suddenly she has said that she wants 50% of all child care costs, if any, to be in the consent order as well. My solicitor has said I should not agree to this but she is now threatening the whole thing to go to court again. Any advice?

I wouldn''t agree. If she has childcare costs and is working then she ought to be able to claim the childcare element of working tax credits, which pays up to 70% of any costs.

Also, an agreement to pay 50% leaves you at her whim for your personal budget. You might get your life nicely sorted out then she goes and gets a job and leaving you with a £200 per week nursery bill.

Whatever you agree to, you have to know that you can live with it. If you don''t think that you could then consider calling her bluff on it. Just be aware that the costs of going all the way to a final hearing at court are likely to be expensive for both of you.

the payment of childcare costs falls away pretty quickly when you start to earn. You really have to be part-time on a relatively low wage to get the full 70% and childcare can be very expensive, even if it''s just before and afterschool care.

Your wife will be forced (in a roundabout way) to work by the benefits system once your son reaches the age of 5. Childcare really does eat into wages and is an unavoidable cost unless there is family available locally willing/able to help out.

I guess much will depend on what you earn - it sounds like you''re a relatively high earner given what you''ve already agreed to. It might be time to call her bluff and remind her that in a worse case scenario, all she''d end up with is 15% of your income. Many of us have lost houses we couldn''t afford to pay the mortgage on ourselves.

It might be worthwhile posting your full financial details in the Ancillary Relief forum - wiser wikis will be able to look at the likelihood of you having to pay spousal maintenance if you end up in front of a judge.

Regardless, I would look to define exactly what she means by ''childcare''. Is that nursery, childminder, school afterschool care, clubs, other activities, a mix of everything?

You need to qualify what she means by child care costs as well.

It will be one thing paying so that she can go to work but if she gets a baby sitter in so that she can go out with her new boyfriend will you still want to go halves?

I''m assuming she gets the biggest share of the house, the percentage of your income etc etc to make up for the fact that she doesn''t work.
If she is pushed into work by the benefit system, she''ll be on low wages so childcare costs more or less paid for.
If not, she''ll have to write to her MP about the indecent high costs of childcare, but i wouldn''t agree to paying them.
It coul dbe fair if she means school holidays childcare. 13 weeks during the year,more for private schools, at around £250/week/child, could justify a 50/50split.

She does work. Earns about £16000 last year, will be £20300 this year. Gets some benefits as well.

Funny, it''s nearly my own figures! Child benefit would be 135 every four week and roghly the same for working tax credits. Can''t see why everyday childcare costs should beshared (after/before school is around £15/day/child) but holidays, up to you to see if you can share. As far as i''m concerned, they are the killer!