Hi Caitriona
Thank you for your post, I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. The Child Maintenance Service takes shared care into account in different ways depending on the paying parent’s child maintenance rate. Shared care applies if the paying parent provides overnight care for at least 52 nights per year before a liability will be reduced. This is based on the agreement with the receiving parent and or evidence. Shared care is usually determined over a twelve month basis, but shorter periods can be considered in appropriate cases.
The paying parent’s weekly amount of child maintenance is divided between the number of children that qualify for child maintenance
Shared care is then taken into account, based on the number of nights of shared care for each child. The amount of child maintenance to be paid is then reduced by up to 50 per cent plus a further £7 reduction, depending on the number of nights, as long as this is for more than 175 days or more a year.
The reductions for Basic and Basic plus rates are:
1 night per week = amount reduced by 1/7
2 nights per week = amount reduced by 2/7
3 nights per week = amount reduced by 3/7
175 nights or more = amount reduced by half and then minus a further £7.00 per child
A paying parent will usually have to pay at least £7 a week in child maintenance after shared care has been taken into account. However, if their child maintenance is set at Flat rate because the paying parent receives an income-related benefit, allowance or entitlement, then shared care for 52 nights or more a year will reduce child maintenance to £0 for that child. The paying parent also does not have to pay child maintenance for any other qualifying children who live in the same household as that child with shared care.
If child maintenance is set at Flat rate because the paying parent’s income is £100 a week or less, the Child Maintenance Service does not take shared care into account at all. This means the amount of child maintenance will not change.
This is only based on the number of nights a child stays with the paying parent and assumes that the receiving parent still carries out most of the day-to-day care.
If the paying parent can prove that they carry out an equal amount of day-to-day care as well as having equal shared care then the Child Maintenance Service regards neither parent to be the paying parent so their child maintenance would be set as nil, even if one parent receives child benefits or tax credits as the child’s parent. Where there is equal day to day care, and there is no paying parent means that there cannot be a statutory case and the Child maintenance Service would not being able to process the application as there is no identifiable paying parent.
If a paying parent has more than one qualifying child and does not provide the same amount of care for all the qualifying children, liability will be worked out by adding a reduction for each child and dividing the result by the total number of qualifying children. For clarification and further information on the above, you may wish to speak to the Child Maintenance Service directly. Their contact details can be found at
www.gov.uk/child-support-agency
In your post you have mentioned the reduction in the tax credits that you may receive, if you have any concerns regarding this you may wish to speak to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to discuss this further. Their contact details can be found at
www.hmrc.gov.uk
If you have any concerns in regards to your housing situation you may wish to contact Local authority housing. You can find further information regarding this at
www.gov.uk and search term ''Housing''.
We have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful, it offers help and support to separated families. You can find this at
www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Sorting-Out-Separation.html
If you would a confidential chat with Child Maintenance Options team or find out more about all the options available for child maintenance, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday, alternatively you can visit our website at
www.cmoptions.org
William
