The Divorce Court no longer has jurisdiction over maintenance payments for
children unless those payments have been agreed in writing between the parties
and embodied in a "consent order". Child maintenance is now the exclusive
province of the Child Support Agency. For further information Click here
This causes a number of problems for clients and their lawyers alike. The
first is delay and it may be necessary for one party to apply to the Divorce
Court for "interim spousal maintenance" to include a figure for the children
pending a CSA Assessment.
The formula by which child maintenance was calculated is extremely
complicated and despite a preponderance of computer programmes designed to
calculate the appropriate figures, the CSA's assessment still could be
problematic.
In order to try and address this the Government has brought in a "broad
brush" approach of 15% of a Respondent's net income for one child, 20% for two
children and 25% for three or more children.
This has proved not be the "neat and easy" solution the government hoped for.
Although for some couples it can be a straightforward matter, many others find
relying on the CSA to enforce a child support calculation against a payer not in
regular full time paid employment remains slow, difficult and often impossible.