Does CMS/courts take into account my income?

My hubby has 2 daughters from a previous relationship (10 & 12) and we have 2 little boys (2 and 8 months). We have the girls 3 nights a week and he pays £280 to their mum in an agreement outside of CMS, so with child benefit she gets roughly £450 a month even though she only has them roughly 4 extra nights! He's been happy to pay this on the basis she uses that to get all their clothes, uniform etc. but there's been quite a few instances now where the girls have come round with clothes too small, with holes in or just really worn out. We took them to a caravan in January and the one turned up with a thin jacket and when he messaged her mum saying wheres her coat, her reply was she was waiting until next month to get one for her bday, not even caring it was freezing out. We're going on holiday next week so their mum packed their suitcase and there is literally 3 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of flip flops and 5 old tops for 10 days - no pretty dresses or anything like that. He messaged her asking where their clothes are and she replied saying that's all they have, so we've just gone and spent nearly £100 each on new clothes and shoes. It's a piss take to be fair. He text her this afternoon saying he would rather have them 1 extra night a fortnight so it's 50/50 and use the money he pays her to buy the girls whatever they need. She replied saying she will take him to court as the maintenance isn't just for clothes, it's for a roof over their head. She's not got a bad job and could easily downsize to save money and hubby is only on roughly £5k more than her, which she basically gets anyway due to him paying the maintenance. I'm the big earner in our household and she's said that because our joint household income is well over double hers, the courts would side with her and make him pay even if he has them 50/50. I've no experience with CMS so don't know the ins and outs. Will they take into account how much better off we are, solely because of my income? Or do they just consider mum and dad's income and the time spent with each?

Show your support

You don’t need to go to court to do CMS. You can just go online and do the child maintenance calculator on the government website and it will calculate the amount your husband should pay based on how much you see the kids etc. It will be based upon his income only and also will take into the fact you have your own children he needs to provide for. If you are happier with this amount I would just make an application directly to them and he will need to provide payslips etc and then they will send her a letter saying the amount etc. Re the 50/50, the CMS still says you should pay but there are cases that if you go through the courts for 50/50 CMS won’t be payable especially if they earn similar amounts, this is alot of effort though so depends if you think it’s worth it.

We’re not married but as far as I know it’s only the wage of the parent that’s taken into account, not the household income . Unfortunately it goes off the gross earnings though not the net income so depending on his tax bracket it can be a bit of a kick 😬 My partner and his ex also used to have an outside agreement until I got pregnant . We got told by someone who works with them that it takes 6 weeks to process the request, and when did he receive the CMS letter but when I was 6 weeks post partum 😤 I’m sure they do take into account that he has other children though . Sorry that you’re going through this it can get unnecessarily nasty, I hope you and the kids are okay. My partner is taking his ex to court because he also asked for more time with his daughter - more specifically during school holidays as she was saying he could only have her during ‘his days’ at the weekend (even though they didn’t have a parent plan in place) and she began accusing him of only wanting more time with

her so that he doesn’t have to pay CMP 🙄 I said surely you want your kids father to be involved more..loads of women are fighting to get deadbeat dads involved with their kids and here she is refusing him his rights as a parent 😅

Husband didn't update his circumstances with CSA until 2years after we married and had our own child together but they didn't take into account my wages when calculating ( I was the lower earner) , they did deducted from their calculations though due to my 2 children and our 1 child together that he had to provide for too.

In relation to packing clothes for holidays and not being happy with the quality etc we always have had a wardrobe for SD here, even when she didn’t live with us on top of maintenance. It may be easier to just keep a wardrobe of clothes yourself so you don’t face these issues xx

Yes same we have all our own stuff including clothes etc on top of maintenance, nothing goes back and forth except school bag xx

@Hayden thanks for the reply. I don't really understand the calculator because it comes up that even if we have them 50/50 or more, he'd still end up paying her, is that solely because he earns slightly more? x

If you have them 50/50 you shouldn’t be paying her. You’d have to go to court and get a shared care order then stop paying her.

@Anais is that difficult to get? If it's 50/50 will they definitely stop the child maintenance regardless of the income both households get? x

I’m not entirely sure, research it all. I read a post similar to this on Facebook and that’s the information someone gave. X

If you have a look on dad.info they have loads of information and forums about what pple did. We find it very useful.

Thank you!

Nope you’re money is your money they aren’t your children you have zero parental responsibility it’s only your partners income they care about x

Your wage isn’t taken into consideration. We have my SS 50/50, have a wardrobe of clothes here and a set of school clothes. When his mother tried to go down cms my husband called then and explained it’s a week here and a week with mum, we provide everything whilst he’s with us, doctors/dentist appointments is whoever has him at the time takes him. Husband pays for hair cuts and they do 50/50 on school trips, cms said it’s a nil claim then, so she ended up with nothing. We didn’t go through the courts at all. Xx

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌