Salary reduction after consent order agreed

My partner divorced 18 months ago but since the Consent Order was agreed has received a 40% salary reduction and is unable to meet his monthly financial commitments without incurring hardship and further debt.

The consent order states a rate of periodical payments to be made which I understand is made up of CM and SM.

The order states that if the CMS makes an assessment of child support maintenance then the periodical payments due shall reduce on a pound for pound basis. The CMS have assessed that my partner is overpaying by £900 per month.

We have heard from his ex wife’s solicitor who states that the consent order does not allow variation even based on the CMS assessment and any reduction in payment will make him in breach of his order and liable for prison.

We can not afford to take legal advice but would welcome any advice to how to proceed. My partner is so stressed over this and there appears to be negotiation or empathy from his ex to try and deal with this amicably.

Can the monthly payments reduce automatically on the CMS assessment or can this only be considered on applying for a variation and taking this back before a judge?

It sounds like he has a global maintenance order.

He would need to apply to court for a variation.

I agree with Luna Shadow, the order sounds like a global maintenance order, check the terms/wording of the order.

Variation of maintenance claims can be a minefield as the court has a wide discretion. The procedure is Form A and then form E's like a financial application.

I would suggest your ex gets some initial advice on the order and a variation application before applying back to court, even if he intends to self rep in the proceedings.

It might be worth doing this to make a more formal offer to the ex's Solicitor before making the court application, to see if the variation can be done by consent, worth a try.

Good luck
Deborah

Thank you both your your advice. It does sound that we need some legal advice quite quickly. I think the clause about the CMS assessment has confused us, but I’m assuming from your responses that this simply translates that is the CM goes down the SM goes up?

How often are these varaiation requests successful? I’m beginning to feel not often, with examples of people going bankrupt over the financisl commitment they are tied into?