New to child maintenance, advice needed

My divorce is almost final, and now I need to sort out paying child maintenance to my ex wife. Our children are 14 and 11, I''m self employed and in some financial difficulty that I am working through.

What happens from here, is this something mediation gets involved in?

Yes mediation can calculate the maintenace amount based upon your income any reduction you get for overnight stays or you and your STBX can come to an informal agreement.

It''s normally done as a set percentage depending upon the number of children in relation to you being self employed they may need slightly more information about your turnover etc.

Alternatively you could just use the CMS service.

The CM Options website has resources and tools to help parents come to their own arrangement. Also there are explanations about calculating payments under Child Maintenance Service rules and including child maintenance in a Consent Order if parents want to make an agreed arrangement more formal.

Generally its (or was) 15% of your net income for the first child then 5% more for each child there after. It was claimed that nobody would ever pay more than 30% of their net income.

So it''ll depend on what you show in your accounts as a net income. Prepare to be questioned deeply on your finances though.

I dont recommend it, but my ex left me with my two and cleared off to Spain to run a bar. She''s been there over 6 years and never paid a penny to the childrens upbringing. And there is nothing I can do about it apparently as its out of the CSA''s (or whatever they are now) juristriction.

If you can do it amicably, then thats the least painful.

Thanks, I think that has all the info I need right now.

The Child Maintenance Service handles new child maintenance applications and the basic rate is 16% of *gross* income for two children if the paying parent''s gross income is £200 - £800 per week. There are deductions for overnight stays the child has with the paying parent.



EnvySingleDad, the CSA/CMS don''t have jurisdiction when the non resident parent lives abroad but then you can then apply to court for an order. Once you have an order there are reciprocal arrangements for enforcement of maintenance orders with many other countries including Spain.