Refund of Maintenance/Divorce Settlement

Hi - wondering if someone has come across this: if maintenance has been paid but it later transpires the payee (who has always had suspicions) is not the father of the child do all maintenance payments (and divorce settlement eg house etc) have to be repaid - got divorce 6 years ago - maintenance was agreed between the two of us, not via CSA, divorce settlement agreed by the court. Last thing wanted is to force a test on the two children-just want to know what comeback I have? Dont begrudge the kids anything but the ex ended up with everything I had at the time.

This has been dubbed "paternity fraud".

There have been some cases but AFAIK the money has never had to be paid back. This would, I imagine, be because the children have been brought up as children of the family, regardless of their biological origins. They still need housing, feeding etc.

I should imagine there would be repercussions for AI and adopted children if you could argue you should not pay for a child of the family that is not biologically yours.


Hadenoughnow

Thanks for that. Thats what we thought, but we have found articles (albeit where maintenance was paid through the CSA rather than an informal agreement) where it was refunded in such circumstances which is how the query came about. We really dont want to do it but the ex is using the kids as emotional blackmail for contact/finances and its almost bankrupting us. I am minded just to go to court to get the maintenance capped/resolved one way or the other but that just costs more money!