CSA v voluntary arrangement

Afternoon All

Hope you can answer a question for me please as my partner is going through a divorce and will be sorting out child maintenance shortly.

He is currently paying a voluntary amount which is based on (and more than) the CSA calculation but his ex keeps demanding more money at short notice from him to cover half of all school trips, uniform, club fees, etc etc etc.

He is trying to figure out that if he went through the CSA and formalised it all, is the figure that they decide on to cover everything mentioned above? Is it a full and final figure?

My partner is happy to pay his way and fully accepts the responsibility but he is getting frustrated with the demands for extra money from his ex. The problem is that she will agree to the trips etc and then demand the money, without consulting him in the first place and without considering his opinion. It is once more a control thing and he is looking at options to protect himself to a degree. He will gladly pay for things that are apropriate but it won''t be long before his children are old enough to drive etc and then he will get demands for car, insurance, tax etc etc - it will just keep going on and escalating!

Please don''t think he is trying to dodge responsibilities but there has to be a limit as he has his own house to run and bills to pay and he has his children 3 nights a week too.

Thanks for your help - look forward to your comments...

he can calculate how much he should give on here for the CSA.
Once he has payed that he dost have to give her anything else.
If he wants to give more maybe he could surgest that he buys coats and shoes for school, and 1 school trip a year,then she asks for nothing else.
I think that''s more than fair.
Minxy

Hi Minxy
That was what I thought that the CSA amount covers everything - everyone needs to know how much they have to pay in order to be able to budget - he has just paid the best part of £500 to his ex today following a letter this morning demanding it!

This sounds very familar!

I pay an additional voluntary amount on top of "regular2 child maintenance and was getting similar requests from my ex, despite already paying her a lot more more than the CSA demands.

I eventually just said "no" to more.She wasn`t happy but there are simply limits to what I can afford.

In retrospect both of us should have more clearly defined what counted as extras.

I`m now getting it included in the Consent Order, so it`s no longer a grey area.

Hi, my partner has a now 7 year old daughter with his ex, when we first got together he was paying her £90 a week out of his £200 wage, yet the mother never thought this was enough, when he moved in with me u calculated how much he should be paying and its a lot less, so now he''s paying that as like u I agree he should pay for his daughter but not leave himself short as it ended with me paying out aswell, the mothers not happy even though its still more than the estimate, yet she''s going on holidays abroad 3 times a year, we can''t afford 1, getting an extension on her house etc,