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Wife’s ex has lots of holidays and drives a BMW

November 5, 2012

My wife gets paid the minimum amount from her ex husband, in regard to their 8 year old child. She works so has no spousal maintenance, just child maintenace of £321 per month.

The ex husband owns a ltd company, so is able to hide or be ‘creative’ with the way he gets paid, so now says he can only afford £6 per month. He says he has read the CSA website and only has to give 2 months notice to change the monthly figure. Surely he cant just decide how much he wants to pay?

He pays for multiple holidays each year and drives a big BMW. So we dont think for a second that he cannot afford the £321, or even more to be honest.

If he was employed is would be easy to see what his net pay is each month, but by some clever accounting through is business and paying his family a wage, which he then gets as cash, he is able to paint any picture he wishes.

How can we stop him from breaking the court order that is in place? Shall we get a solicitor or is there someone from the CSA that can help?

Many thanks for any adivce you can give…

Dan

Written by Dan Acorn · Filed Under CSA Advice 

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Comments

  • chall says:
    November 6, 2012 at 8:27 am

    Quote Dan; He says he has read the CSA website and only has to give 2 months notice to change the monthly figure.

    If a court order for child maintenance is older than 12 months and dated after 6 April 2002, then either parent can apply to the CSA to obtain a calculation after giving 2 months notice to the other party.

    chall ~ afairercsaforall

  • Alice says:
    November 6, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    If your partner’s ex is a director of a ltd company the CSA will class him as employed, and the maintenance calculation will be based on the income he takes under PAYE – this can of course be ‘manipulated’ so that his income becomes minimal, the minimum he would be asked to pay would be £5 per week if he is earning less than £100 per week. If he is taking dividends then your wife can apply for a variation as he has a 2nd income.

  • Carol D says:
    November 7, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    You could apply for a variation on the grounds of lifestyle inconsistent with income and get the CSA to investigate further.

  • Alice says:
    November 7, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    bear in mind the csa are not a detective agency and any variation application will require evidence to back it up – if he is driving an expensive car give the make model and if possible the registration number, if he owns property provide proof via land registry entry – if he is taking lots of holidays and sends you postcards, emails you about his time away (possibly as an explanation as to why he cannot have his child/children for normal access due to him being on holiday) send copies of these to the agency with the variation form. All variation forms are copied in and sent to the NRP (your personal details such as your address, NI No etc are removed in accordance with the Data Protection Act) – he will have the right to dispute the information.

    If an NRP is living a lavish lifestyle but maintaining a low earned income in order to avoid paying a realistic amount of child maintenance it often turns out that any assets (properties, cars, boats etc) are registered as belonging to their current partner of family members.

    Good luck .. keep a copy of the variation form and all evidence enclosed with it, send it by recorded delivery and print out the confirmation of it being delivered

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