Being threatened by my ex re child maintenance

I separated from my ex husband 18 months ago. I will be filing for divorce this year which he accepts. It''s a long story but he is a very difficult man who has Asperger Syndrome and who was emotionally abusive.

We have 2 children who live with me and when we separated, I contacted the child maintenance Service who opened a Direct Pay case and said he should pay £376 a month.

My ex said he couldn''t afford this and so I agreed to £300 per month but kept the Direct Pay case open.

In May last year we sold the family home and split the proceeds. He moved into rented accommodation (I was already in rented accommodation.) He said he could no longer afford £300 per month as the rent was higher than the mortgage had been and he dropped payments to £150 a month.

I am really struggling with this drop in income. He earns £35,000 a year and I really can''t see that he genuinely can only afford £150 per month.

Trying to negotiate with him has got me nowhere. I mentioned enforcement via Collect and Pay as an option and he said that if I did that, he would consider it as me ''turning nasty'' and that he he would then ''turn very nasty indeed''. I know enough about him to be worried by this threat.

I now don''t know what to do.

Hi,
Your choice is quite simple if he is not willing to negotiate.

a) Accept his threats and take the £150
b) Proceed with enforcement

I suspect that if you do proceed with enforcement he will make the divorce difficult and protracted, so you could ''play smart'' and delay any enforcement until after the divorce is settled.

LB