Reducing CM for travel costs and pension payments

I''m at the end of my tether with my ex-wife dumping the costs of our children on me despite earning far more than me. For example, I pay almost 2/3 of our children''s cost when maintenance and travel costs are taken into account but I repeatedly have to buy clothes for them as she doesn''t and she''s now effectively blackmailing me into paying for £2,000 of school and Scout trips. If this goes on then I will be broke by the time our last has grown up whilst she lives in a paid-up 4 bedroom London house with a fortune in the bank.

The CM rules that I''ve seen (I''m still with the CSA) say that CM can be reduced for travel costs and pension payments. I pay around £350 pm CM and do some 12,000m pa to see our kids at a cost of some £320 pm in fuel and oil (my car is heavy on fuel and oil), say £500pm at HMRC''s cost estimate of 45p per m. My applying for any reduction will almost certainly result in my ex reducing my time with our children and the above costs.

I don''t want to apply if I''ll end up shooting myself in the foot from losing a lot of time with our kids for only a few pounds reduction in CM.

Also, I''m thinking of taking advantage of the current pension rules to pay (from post-tax income) into a private pension then take the money out later (I save tax on the 25% tax-free lump sum); whilst not my primary motive, getting my CM payments effectively delayed until later (I''m assuming I''ll pay 25% CM on any money that I take out) would be a huge benefit. However, such payments could be seen as deliberate manipulation.

Can anyone advise me of:
what I can achieve with the above travel costs if I apply to have CM reduced?
What limits would be applied to pension payments in these circumstances?

Under CSA rules a "non resident" parent cannot claim a variation for a reduction to allow for travel expenses as well as shared care. It''s either one or the other.

A reduction for contact costs isn''t pound for pound. There is a threshold (£15/week if memory serves me well) which is taken off the expenses and the remaining expenses are deducted from the non resident parent''s net income before the usual child maintenance calculation.

For example, taking £65 (£15 x 4.3) off your £320 expenses would leave £255. If you have two children you would save 20% of £255 (£51) but there would be no reduction for the number of overnights the children stay with you.

Net income is gross income minus tax, NI and pension contributions.




Bear in mind the Government has stated existing arrangements made through the CSA will be ending between now and 2017. If parents cannot then come to a family based arrangement they have the option to open a new case with the Child Maintenance Service. The CMS rules are different and allow for reductions for shared care and travel expenses.

Only "reasonable" contributions to an approved pension scheme can be deducted from the non resident parent''s gross income. There’s no limit to the amount of pension contributions that the CMS consider reasonable when they work out how much maintenance should be paid. For example, it would be reasonable to make large contributions to a pension if you’re close to retirement. However the CMS rule on reasonable pension contributions makes it more difficult to make excessive pension contributions.