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Reduction of contact costs

Tissar
Posted by
New Member

10 Jan 15 #453411 by Tissar

Topic started by Tissar

My ex lives 300 miles away and comes down every other weekend, picks up his son takes him back for a day and brings him back Sunday. We have a private agreement. He has now informed me that he has reduced the maintenance amount by subtracting his annual travel costs from his underlying salary. Can he just do that?

Does anyone know how much contact costs he can reduce?

MrsMathsisfun
Platinum Member

10 Jan 15 #453412 by MrsMathsisfun

Reply from MrsMathsisfun

Welcome to wiki.

Is the amount of cm part of Consent Order?

Child Maintenance Options
Moderator

12 Jan 15 #453525 by Child Maintenance Options

Reply from Child Maintenance Options

Hello Mandsey

When you have a statutory case for child maintenance payments, for example; one arranged via the Child Maintenance Service, travel costs as well as some other variations can be taken into account. The amount depends on the details of the variation and the Child Maintenance Service would work this out on an individual basis. You can find more information about this here, www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/upl...hild-maintenance.pdf The specific information you require is located from page 36 onwards of this booklet.

As you have a family-based arrangement in place, there are no set rules to follow. This type of arrangement can include anything that you can both agree on. The Child Maintenance Options website, www.cmoptions, contains lots of information and tools designed to help you negotiate a family-based arrangement.

If you would like more information about all the options available to arrange child maintenance and a more personalised service, you can contact Child Maintenance Options directly.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ‘Sorting out separation’. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Sorting-Out-Separation.html

Regards

Sarah

Tissar
Posted by
New Member

12 Jan 15 #453542 by Tissar

Reply from Tissar

Hi Sarah,
thank you for your reply. The links you provided are dead unfortunately and none provide information about how such costs are calculated and what is seen as a fair agreement?

Hi MrsMathsisfun,
we have a private agreement (not a consent order) which he now after 3 years wants to change unilaterally and the difference amounts to GBP100 less a month.

Best
Tissar

rubytuesday
Moderator

12 Jan 15 #453543 by rubytuesday

Reply from rubytuesday

The links should now work I''ve edited out the full-stop at the end of the links.

Is your ex doing all the travelling and meeting those costs?

Tissar
Posted by
New Member

12 Jan 15 #453581 by Tissar

Reply from Tissar

Yes, he takes the train down, picks up the kid, travels back, spends 2 nights and brings the kid back.

Fiona
Platinum Member

12 Jan 15 #453587 by Fiona

Reply from Fiona

When there is a private agreement there are no rules, you can agree anything you like between yourselves. If your ex does all the travelling it isn''t unreasonable to deduct *something* from child maintenance to help with the costs.

If it helps negotiations under the statutory scheme the general gist is this. The costs of contact are calculated as a weekly amount. The first £10/£15 is disregarded and the remainder is deducted from the paying parent''s gross income before the usual calculation.

e.g. costs of travel are £100 a month works out at £23.26 weekly.

if the paying parent earns more then £200 a week there would be a £15 disregard

£15 disregard deducted from the £23.56 weekly travel expenses would leave £8.26

£8.26 would be deducted from the paying parents income before the usual calculation

child maintenance for one child is calculated at 12 percent of the paying parents income so the receiving parent would lose 12 percent of £8.26 or £1 weekly

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

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