It is possible to arrange child maintenance payments through the court. This is done, in England and Wales, by way of a ‘consent order.’ A consent order is an official ruing of the court that orders the non-resident parent to pay an agreed amount of child support to the resident parent. If you and your ex partner cannot agree on the amount that should be paid, a consent order is not the right option for you.
Consent orders for child support payments are almost always ordered at the same time as the parties are in court for another reason, e.g. a divorce or in ancillary relief proceedings. If you are not eligible for legal aid, you will have to pay for the consent order yourself (court fees, solicitors fees etc.) It is also important to note that if you are normally eligible for legal aid, you will not be covered for a consent order if you are only going to court to deal with child maintenance issues.
What Happens If The Order Is Breached?
If the non-resident parent does not comply with the order of the court, the court can then enforce payment against them. If you then wish to go to the CSA/CMS to obtain child maintenance payments, you cannot do this until the order has been in force for at least twelve months.
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Much like the powers of the CSA/CMS, the court can require that deductions are made from the non-resident parent’s earnings at source. It is also possible to put a charge on the non-resident parent’s property, if they own it. Although this is not a quick-fix in that you will not get your money immediately, it means that you will obtain the money you are owed on the sale of the property if there is enough equity left after mortgage and any other charges are paid off. If your ex-partner has a lot of charges against his or her property, you may be quite a long way down the list and may not receive anything when it is sold. If someone owes your ex-partner money, you can apply to the court to obtain a ‘third party debt order’, which is basically an order of the court requiring the money to be paid to you rather than to your ex-partner. You can do this with money owed to your ex by banks, companies and private individuals. The facility for an overdraft does not count, in this regard, and nor does money that is contained within a joint account.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Injunction
If your ex is caught trying to move money between accounts or hiding details of his or her finances, you can also ask the court to intervene by obtaining a ‘freezing injunction.’ This stops the assets being moved around, and is especially useful if your ex-partner is trying to take money out of the country.
Prison For Non-Payment of Child Support
A last resort in relation to child maintenance payments is that you can apply to the court to have your ex-partner sent to prison. The application that you make is called a ‘Request for Judgment Summons’, which summons your ex to court. If your ex does not show up, the court may issue a warrant for their immediate arrest, or a ‘suspended committal order’, which in effect gives them another chance to show up before a warrant is issued.
The judge can either: order that the payments are made by instalments; or, if satisfied that your ex has the means to pay but is wilfully refusing to pay, can send him or her to prison for a period of up to six weeks.
not only that he have a properties on rental and access over 4 million...
CSA Already told him the calculation but he still not paying...
it’s horibly frustrating , the waiting and how he can gaming CSA...
now he trying anything he can to lower the payment... he got another child which was a concent order to awarded to be paid...
what can I do ?
Can I get any consent order to force.
I was his accountant so I know exactly how he gaming the situation...
My ex partner was employed and I had been receiving £1500 a month for two children. In beginning on 2018 he started a successful business employing a further 3 directors, one being his WIFE! They live in a 350k house drive two cars one being x6 have nice holidays and so on.....1 year ago my payments have dropped to £120 a month after he made his wife director and is now only claiming to the HMRC he earns £8200 a year... really! This is not only tax avoidance but dirversion of find to avoids paying maintenance... looks like he’s taking dividends and paying his wife a massive salary when she clearly does not work and Lola after there son full time ! Where do I start this is totally disgusting and unfair..
I have been using the CSA then the CMS for the last 4.5years to try and get a fair payment from my sons father (CSA case was closed early due to a nil assessment as he told them he wasn’t work when he was)
He repeatedly plays games (gives false contact details/ living circumstances/income details/employer name etc etc.) in the last year I have received 41 letters from the CMS for all the recurrent changes. As soon as something is arranged and set up the day before payment he will call and change his payment method/say he is now unemployed etc etc they then ask for evidence which is never received and then the processed starts all over again until another deductions of earning is set up and then he calls the day before and makes a minimum payment so that the deductions of earning is removed. He was left on a nil assessment for 7months despite me informing them repeatedly that he was working, and when the backdated figure was put in place he fought against it as it that the CMS fault that the calculation hadn’t been done and the backdated figure was basically ignored. All I got was a written apology from CMS for their mistake.
He has never been out of arrears disputes living a luxury lifestyle of holidays and season tickets whilst I have to work 45hrs pw to support my son.
I understand that it is him that is playing the game but the CMS are just allowing him to do it. How can they allow the same cycle over and over again? He has never been fined for providing false information-should he not be? I feel that the CMS are letting my son down and not providing the service that they are supposed to. Can I go about taking legal action against the CMS for not sorting this out properly?
Thanks
I currently go through the CMS.
I know he's going to be earning a lot more than he did at his previous job but he won't declare it.
Can I take my ex to court and would it be worth my while?
Thank you.
My ex-husband is no longer employed and will be relocating to America. We did not have any court order, just mutual agreements and then we used CSA towards the end which is case file was just closed, as he is no longer employed. I read that I cannot do anything with the REMO country because we never had a court order.
I honestly don’t want to get him in any trouble with his new life in America and I don’t know if I’m supposed to now bring him to court in the UK or bring him to court in America to request a court ordered child support. Any advice would be very much appreciated.
He receives profit from rental properties, even after all mortgage and insurance expenses are deducted he still earns enough to not need to work. CSA state that they don't consider rental income as an income for maintenance calculations. Ex also is getting ESA somehow so surely I should get at least £5/ week? I wouldn't like to know how I can get maintenance from him.
If HMRC recognise his income for getting their tax paid then why can't it be considered for chairs maintenance? And why am I not even getting £5/week?
Can I take him to court?
My husband has a consent order that does not specify child maintenance, more so financials of assets but he has paid the agreed amount that was originally in the separation agreement since separation.
One daughter has just finished A levels and the son has finished the first year uni. The intention is to now stop all maintenance. He paid the extra year for the eldest just to keep things simple. (I might add he does not see his children after a lengthy contact battle but continued to pay maintenance)
The separation agreement specifies paying to tertiary education but he never agreed to have that in the consent order as we were advised to keep maintenance out. So the question is: Are we correct that the consent order over rides the separation agreement that was made before divorce and so therefore now both have finished their A levels he can stop maintenance? Thank you
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