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Solicitor4All
Solicitor4All, Solicitor
Category: Family Law
Satisfied Customers: 7838
Experience:  Director and Principal Solicitor. UK
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How can my stepdaughter challenge the amount of child

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how can my stepdaughter challenge the amount of child maintenance paid to her by her ex, he is a rich man who founded his successful company but transferred his shares to his new wife who takes dividends to support fast cars, second home purchase etc so the ex tells CSA he only has income of about £20k (instead of say £200k) pa so the only support he will provide is for one child (age 14) not another aged 16 back in education in September) ie ~£150 per month , with which she has to support both children while she is retraining through an MA in order to get her own work?
JA: How old are your children? Where do they live?
Customer: the children are 14 and 16 living with her (with an 18 year old too in further education but not living with her)
JA: Is there an agreement for payment of child support?
Customer: there was an agreement from the court of an award of ~£1700 which the father then challenged through the CSA and having changed his company ownership arrangements so his wife take dividend income instead of him he has been told by CSA he has to pay zero for the 18 y/o, zero for the 16y/o and £150 /month for the 14 year old...
JA: Is there anything else the Lawyer should know before I connect you? Rest assured that they'll be able to help you.
Customer: that's it
Solicitor4All

A very good evening to you there, how do you do?

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 My name is Solicitor4All a law expert with over 15years practice. I will be helping you this evening. Thank you for the inquiry.

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First of all, I am sorry to hear about the issues brought up by this. It must be a frustrating situation to be going through Please leave the inquiry with me and i will prepare a response for you here this evening. Thank you.

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Customer: replied 15 days ago.
thank you. I hoping there is some recourse to challenge the CSA assessment which was made on his submission of income data etc..maybe a mechanism for her to challenge the CSA on the suspicion he has 'cloaked' his real income through corporate device for that purpose.
Thank you very much for your patience. The CMS calculation will rarely reflect the income that a paying parent actually gets. It just makes sure they pay at least the minimum required for the child/children. For a maintenance order that will look into all income sources that can be tracked, she must consider making an application to the family court for a maintenance order.
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Any follow up please do not hesitate to send your message. Always happy to clarify anything and to give further guidance if you return. All the best,

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Customer: replied 14 days ago.
Thank you so much. I had not realised that the CMS calc was not 'mandatory' for the recipient to accept from the payer!: can the recipient therefore herself make an application to the family court(online?) for a maintenance order and provide information eg companies house data etc for the family court to make enquiries of or should this be through a solicitor and if so rough estimate of 'likely' costs ? thank you

The family court will not investigate but they will consider all the evidence that she provides to show the true nature of the income and if she does not have the details she may have to employ an investigator or she may apply for pre-action disclosure of the information from the ex.

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Customer: replied 14 days ago.
ok very helpful too thank you - can you please indicate how an 'application for pre-action disclosure' from the ex is made/put together ? thank you. Once I've scoped all this I may need to move on to estimating the cost of the exercise! thank you again.

It is a court application that you file with the court for  pre-action disclosure. I would strongly recommend that you get help with it to ensure the Application Notice is clear, your statement and draft order are on point too.

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