The UK's largest and most visited divorce site.
Modern, convenient and affordable services.
We've helped over 1 million people since 2007.

Click this button for details of our

email, phone nbr and free consultations.

How To Contact Us

Missed payments due to unemployment

Start
Prev
1
Next
End

Jdv2
Posted by
New Member

12 Nov 14 #449040 by Jdv2

Topic started by Jdv2

Hi my husband pays maintenance to his ex wife and has done since their divorce in 2007. He used to have his daughter 6 nights out of 14 and continued to pay at least £250 a month to his ex wife during this time (worked out from time they divorced). In 2009 his ex wife remarried and moved to Scotland with her daughter, he also faced a pay cut and as we started living together and I have children from a previous relationship, we contacted child maintenance options who worked out the figure for him to pay, approx £150 a month. He has always paid on time, and continued paying even tho we cannot see his daughter as often as we wish, and it costs a lot to see her as she is approx 400 miles away. A work contract he had finished earlier than expected in March, and he earned nothing for two months and also had no redundancy pay. He explained to his ex that he was unable to pay until he had a new job, which he now has and has started paying slightly more per week to his ex as his salary is slightly increased. His ex is now harassing him for the payments he missed during his unemployment, but he actually earned nothing for 2 months - we don''t have the ability to over pay, and had he earned anything he would never have missed a payment. Where does he stand on this matter? Many thanks

Fiona
Platinum Member

12 Nov 14 #449078 by Fiona

Reply from Fiona

When child maintenance wasn''t included in the final order settling the finances on divorce and no application has been made to the CSA or Child Maintenance Service payment is voluntary and open to negotiation. The CM Options website has lots of resources and tools to assist parents come to their own family based arrangements.

If an agreement for child maintenance was included in Consent Order settling the finances on divorce your husband would be liable for the amount stipulated in the consent order unless he had applied to the CSA/CMS. The order in relation to child maintenance would then have then been superseded by the CSA/CMS calculation. IF the CSA/CMS carried out an assessment calculating child maintenance payments your husband would be liable for that amount if he hadn''t notified the CSA/CMS his circumstances had changed when he was made redundant.

Hope that helps.

Child Maintenance Options
Moderator

18 Nov 14 #449435 by Child Maintenance Options

Reply from Child Maintenance Options

Hello Jdv2

If your husband has a family-based arrangement in place with his ex-wife, he may wish to try to discuss and negotiate the maintenance payments with her. Family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable, therefore, parents can decide what is included within their agreement to suit their current circumstances.

The Child Maintenance Options website has a useful tools and guides section that you and your ex-partner may find helpful when trying to negotiate your family-based arrangement. This can be found at www.cmoptions.org.

If there had been an application made with the Child Support Agency (CSA), then your husband may wish to contact them directly to discuss his concerns regarding the payments during the months he was not working. He will find their details on any letters they have sent him or on Gov.uk at www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.

If your husband and his ex-wife had a Consent Order in place, he may wish to seek legal advice as to where he stands regarding the payments. 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.

For more information on the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website.

The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Sorting-Out-Separation.html.

Regards

William

Start
Prev
1
Next
End

Moderators: wikivorce team, rubytuesday, dukey, hadenoughnow, Tets, Shezi, Linda Sheridan, Forseti, Mitchum, WhiteRose, Lostboy67, WYSPECIAL, Bubblegum11

Do you need help sorting out a fair financial settlement?

Our consultant service offers expert advice and support to help you reach agreement on a fair financial settlement quickly, and for less than a quarter of the cost of using a traditional high street solicitor.