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Husband’s ex wants more money from him

February 3, 2013

My husband was previously married for 2 years and had a daughter with his ex wife. He has been divorced for 8 years after she left him for another man.

His daughter is now 9 and stays with us 2 nights a week. My husband pays £195.00 a month in maintenance to his ex wife, who is single and lives alone. His net monthly income is £1760 and mine is £1200. They have joint custody.

His ex wife wants more money from him as she says she is struggling. My husband spends £400 a month commuting to his place of work so he can still live at home to spend time with his daughter. We have no children of our own at present but are starting to think about having children.

Please give us any advice as it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Katherine

Written by Katherine Dgooghe · Filed Under CSA Advice 

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Comments

  • Smithy says:
    February 3, 2013 at 10:16 am

    There’s another thread on here about how peoples train tickets and commuting costs are already “factored” in to the fixed percentage that NRP’s have to pay. They apparently take a “national average” cost and if yours is high relative to the national average then basically it’s tough. The suggestion from the CSA seems to be that you should consider moving closer to where the jobs is or take a different job more local to where you live.

    For the maintenance the CSA would take precedence over any court based arrangement as the case is over 8 years old but possibly there was a nominal spousal maintenance element to the order which is maybe what she’s saying could be reactivated. If that’s the case there’s another site wikivorce.com that’s got a good forum and you may be able to get some answers with that there.

  • Sally says:
    February 3, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    Hi Katherine

    Your situation is very similar to mine… I live with my partner who has two children (I don’t have any) and his ex demanded more money because of my income… We met in 2012 so which means we were on CSA 2 (my income was not taken into account). The CSA calculator verified that my partner was paying his ex an acceptable amount(slightly more) but his ex was told by the CSA that the only was she would get more money would be to reduce my partners overnight stay with his kids… Which is what she did…. There was nothing he could do to stop it… Court order was ignored under the premis that the kids were ill… We gave in, she now gets the maximum

    As Smithy says, the CSA do not consider your partners travel expenses (or anything else you “choose” to buy the kids outwith child maintenance) and based on the amount he earns he could pay up to £351 per month if she reduces the overnight stays to less than 52, if you have the kids for 104 + nights per week year, as you currently do he will be expected to pay £251. Theses numbers are approximate but I’d suggest you have a look at the CSA calculator on line…

    Good luck and please keep us posted on your progress…

  • Sally says:
    February 3, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    Sorry… We met in early 2010!!

  • Alice says:
    February 3, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    for 1 child and an NPR in £1760 per month the calculation would be as follows:

    net income = £406.15 per week
    x 15% for 1 child = £61 per week – always rounded up or down to nearest £1.
    less shared care allowance @ badnwidth 2 = £17.42

    weekly liability is £43.58

    per calendar month your husband would be asked to pay £188.85 per month

  • Sally says:
    February 3, 2013 at 5:05 pm

    Oops sorry Katherine, I thought your partner had two kids… Ignore my post lol lol 🙂

  • Alice says:
    February 3, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    I think Sally has based her calculation on net income weekly being your husband’s monthly income divided by 4 – the true net weekly income is monthly x 12 divided by 52, I think she has also based it on your husband paying for 2 children not 1.

    the csa calculator link is below

    http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp

    the csa will not use your income in the maintenance calculation

    if there were children living in your household your husband would get an allowance off his net income for before the 15% was calculated for his daughter , this would be 15% for 1 child, 20% for 2 children or 25% for 3 children or more.

  • Sally says:
    February 3, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    @ Alice, I based it on 2 children as I stated but on the exact calculation you gave above… £1760 x 12 divided by 52… I entere £406 being the weekly net income…

    Thanks… Lol

  • Sally says:
    February 3, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    Lol even then my figures don’t match up… Sorry if I gave you a fright Katherine….. There is a big difference between between £188 per month and the £251 I mentioned… 😮 god knows what I input…..

    I’ll leave the csa rules calculations to others.. 🙂 I’ll stick with giving my opinion… It never changes 🙂

  • topper says:
    February 3, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    The calculation as shown by Alice is correct, but, £400 a month on commuting? Does he work in London by any chance and the commuting is by rail?

  • j says:
    February 3, 2013 at 10:27 pm

    “Smithy on February 3rd, 2013 – The suggestion from the CSA seems to be that you should consider moving closer to where the jobs is or take a different job more local to where you live. ”

    What a great idea, oh wait a minute, what if the job you do is in short supply where you live, perhaps the total idiot civil servant that thought up this stupid rule could explain how many jobs there are fro coastguards in Derby?

    Another factor they have not taken into account is that perhaps if you worked locally you might not earn as much and the money collected for the secretary of state, oops I mean PWC of course, might be much less, for example a plumber in london earns more than a plumber in coventry.

    Well of course that doesnt matter to the csa, the majority of csa jobs dont involve commuting, they are in the main low paid jobs for local people in areas of high unemployment, just look at where the main offices are located.

    I think the UK is the only country in the world where you can be a ‘bad role model parent’ and get rewarded – woman has an affair, gets residence (custody) of the kids, and then a ‘wage’ payment for as long as the kids are with her.

    Good luck with your case.

    (Hi Sally)

  • Gonk says:
    February 4, 2013 at 1:18 pm

    I agree 100% with smithy
    The csa suggest you move closer to your place of work or it’s tough..if you live outside the national average…your problem….what a lovely ideal world that would be if we could all live so close to where we work…imagine that? I’d be paying less csa since I would not need a car and therefore no car allowance for the csa to screw me for.
    Can’t remember who it was now that brought up mp’s travel allowance lol…but anyway..ihe was told ..this is about the cs and not mp,s travel allowances…I see the 2 as completely relevant….why can an mp claim travel expenses or overnight expenses if his/her job takes them over a certain distance to travel in order to do their job….but a NRP might have to commute outside the national average and get no compensation not even by way of his essential travel cost not being included as disposable income
    Gonk

  • Gonk says:
    February 4, 2013 at 1:41 pm

    j on February 3rd, 2013 10:27 pm

    I think the UK is the only country in the world where you can be a ‘bad role model parent’ and get rewarded – woman has an affair, gets residence (custody) of the kids, and then a ‘wage’ payment for as long as the kids are with her.

    J thats brilliant and sums up my ex.
    She gets a rent free house,council tax paid for,all kinds of other benifits as well..oh and her partner in full time employment lives with her and that’s why she won’t tell me where my daughter lives…cause then I can shop her to the local council for benefit fraud for claiming as a single parent.
    Gonk

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