How can the CMS overthrow a Court Order?

I’m self employed and he isn’t. He gets health care, holiday pay, insurance and pension payments. I don’t. My income has dropped considerably since COVID and now that he’s reducing child maintenance payments, I will be down approximately £225 a month.

He earns more now than he did when the order was made. I think. I’m pretty sure he does. But not much more. Maybe a few thousand.

I’m not one to throw good money after bad, but if there’s a good chance I could secure appropriate payments, I’m happy to give it a go.

"The court will consider all the circumstances of the case when considering a variation application. This is likely to include the parties' needs, their financial resources, age, physical disability, standard of living and earning capacity. Importantly, the court must consider whether the person receiving maintenance payments can adjust to financial independence without undue financial hardship."

That's a paraphrased quote but with £500k in equity and a looming need for potentially only a two bed property being able to argue that you can't adjust to "financial independence without undue hardship" is going to be a hard test to qualify. You probably need to seek further advice as that will be cheaper than going the court route without considering your possible options that may give you both closer to what you want

Who said I had £500k in equity? I wish!

I’ve made my decision. Thanks for your help everyone.

Sorry think I mixed up with another post!
Good luck with whatever you choose

I'm not sure if the original question was finally answered.

The answer is that it isn't worth going back to Court as the Court has no jurisdiction to make a child maintenance order as this lies with the CMS. Any application to the Court, referring to the original order or note, will be dismissed.

Charles

Hello,
I've just come across this post. I went to see a solicitor today. My financial remedy order was made in 2018 and sealed. In the order my ex agreed to pay 300 a month for both children. He then went to Cms and they told him he only needs to pay 165 a month. I though that 2as it and I just accepted it. However, I went to a solicitor today to go through my order in detail as I'm about to remortgage into my sole name and I needed clarification on some of the wording. He noticed the agreement to pay 300 a month and he asked me if he's been paying this. I told him he stopped in Jan 2019 as Cms told him he only had to pay 165. Solicitir said that's not correct and that the 300 agreed in the order is in addition to Cms payments. He told me I can go to court and ask for an enforcement of the child maintenance payments as agreed on the financial remedy order. I did not know this. So I don't know if this helps you or if you've sought advise from a solicitor. But this is what mine told me. Basically my ex owes me 18k

If the court order was for child maintenance and had been in place for at least 12 months then an application to CMS would have superseded it.

Check the wording of your court order, post it on here but take out any personal details if you wish, but from the details you have given us your solicitor is wrong and your ex has no arrears.