Child support reduction whilst ex is on holiday?

Hi Mrsmungo

Thank you for your post. I am William the child maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.

From what you have written, it suggests that your husband and his ex-wife may have a Consent Order or Minute of Agreement (if they lived in Scotland) in place for child maintenance. Once a Consent Order has been agreed and authorised, the paying parent is legally liable to pay the amount the court has endorsed. It is possible to change the terms of a Consent Order but to do this your husband will need to seek legal advice. This usually results in going back to court to set out the application on a standard form. The court will then consider any changes. In addition, you and your husband may wish to seek legal advice to find out if your husband can reduce his payments on the basis of his ex-wife going on holiday for two weeks.

Any Consent Orders that were endorsed after March 2003 are not legally subject to change unless they have been in place for at least 12 months. After 12 months, either parent can apply to the Child Maintenance Service and the Consent Order will no longer be valid. However, if a Consent Order dates back to before April 2003, then law does not allow parents to change over to the Child Maintenance Service. Only the courts can arrange child maintenance in such circumstances. You can find more information about using the Child Maintenance Service on Gov.uk at www.gov.uk/child-maintenance. You can also find more information on how they work out child maintenance on Gov.uk at www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-work...ut-child-maintenance.

For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday.

Regards

William