DadTalk

Child Maintenance: A Dad's Story

When Mark separated from his wife their two daughters were aged 13 and 10. He found it hard to get clear advice about Child Maintenance

Separating from your partner can be painful and complicated at the best of times, but when there are children involved it can even more difficult. Aside from the emotional fallout of a separation there are a number of practical and legal issues that need to be dealt with, an important one being child maintenance.

Mark, 49, from Buckinghamshire separated from his wife in summer 2009; their two daughters were aged 13 and 10 at the time. He says “After separating with my wife I knew I had to keep things as normal as possible for my daughters and make sure that I sorted out financial support for them as soon as possible.”

Mark had a lot of questions about child maintenance but he found it difficult to get clear and impartial advice. “I spoke to a solicitor but afterwards I was even more confused, I couldn’t work out how much I should pay in child maintenance for my daughters. I looked after them three times a week and my solicitor said that this meant I should pay less but when I looked on the internet other people said that childcare arrangements don’t affect the amount you pay if you’re a non-resident parent.

“It was a really stressful and confusing time. All I wanted was to speak to someone who could explain it all to me. As luck would have it a few weeks later I was watching TV and I saw an advert for the Child Maintenance Options service. I gave them a call and spoke to a specialist. She was incredibly helpful, she listened to everything I said and then clearly explained all the options open to me. Before I spoke to her I was worried my ex-wife and I would have to go to court to sort out child maintenance but Options told me that we could arrange child maintenance privately without having to involve the CSA or the courts. I was so relieved, going to court would have been very expensive and it would have been a waste of money that could have been spent on my daughters.

“After speaking to the specialist I went onto the Options website and downloaded two copies of the private arrangement form. I then met with my ex-wife and we talked about it over a cup of tea before agreeing on a monthly sum that I would pay into her account. We signed both copies and kept one each. We’ll probably review the arrangement in the future but so far it’s worked out really well. Sorting it out ourselves made everything really simple and it’s helped keep things amicable between us. Now if the girls need something extra like school uniform or money towards a school trip we sit down and talk about it together before agreeing on how we can pay for it. I pop round all the time now and my relationship with my ex-wife is really strong.”

If you have any questions like Mark did, why not speak to someone at Child Maintenance Options or check out the website: www.cmoptions.org. The service was set up by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and aims to help parents decide for themselves which arrangements will best suit their circumstances.

You can call Options for free on 0800 988 0988, it is available from 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 4pm on Saturday.