Grrr Child Support - a boohoo

[C~Q]

Ok let me start by saying I know I am very lucky with the amount of child support I am entitled to and I know a lot of people get a stupidly low amount of money and thats a grr in itself.

I just got off the phone to the CSA and they confirmed for me that the child support DH has to pay me does get capped and he is paying the max amount now so that next year even though he'll be earning **** loads more he doesn't have to pay us an extra cent! At the moment what he has to pay us is less than 10% of what he is earning and next year it will be even lower.

WTF??? So he could earn a million bucks (he won't!) and still only have to pay $27K. How does that seem fair??? Why would they do that I just don't understand why they would cap it?

He is earning a lot of money because I stayed home to supprt him as he worked his way up to his current position. I listened to his crap about all his staff and gave him advice and did everything at home by myself so that he could concentrate on his career. And I get less than 10% in return.

Please don't think I am a selfish cow for wanting more but I feel like I have given up so much to support him, including leaving all my family and friends in the UK to move here and now he gets to sit back in his high rise apartment in the City with brand new everything while I have to struggle with 3 kids. I feel like he's taking the ****. I can barely afford to stay in this house and he has gone and rented a 2 bedroom apartment for exactly the same money as this 4 bedroom house I feel like he's saying "you can't afford a family home but I can afford to pay the same thing for something better but smaller!!!" I mean WTF

Feel a bit better now, thanks for litening

[~clover~]

That does seem a bit unfair.

[briggsy's girl]

i'm not sure exactly what your situation is, but you do have the option of applying (via legal aide i think) for spousal support based on his income because of what it was at when you were together. i'd be calling the family relationships advice line and getting a bit of help with it. might mean you get no more for the kids, but may be entitled to something for you kwim?

[C~Q]

BG a few people have mentioned spousal support to me but no one seems to know much about it. I asked the lady at the CSA and she put me on to the Family relationships advice people and they didn't know much about it either!

I think I have to see a Lawyer but they're so expensive

[briggsy's girl]

contact legal aid - given you're on PPS, you're on a low income, you should be able to get cheap assistance or atleast enough advice to work out whether it's worth pursuing

[Arimeh]

CQ - yup you'd definitely qualify for spousal maintenance.

Go get legal aid...

And don't worry - when you go for property orders in the court - you'll probably get a lot of his super too

good luck!

[C~Q]

Thanks, i'll get on to legal aid. We don't own our house so I don't think we need to go to court for anything - maybe the spousal maintenance?

Would the SM affect what I get from CL? I'm on the basic FTB already and PP with no rent assis.

Thanks guys I keep forgetting to ask all these things when I actually talk to someone at CL!

[~clover~]

I there a reason you aren't getting RA???
Sorry if its none of my business.

[C~Q]

No thats ok! We're all here to help each other! It's because I get the max amount of child support so I get basic FTB and no RA.

[Beatrix]

hun

i dont know what you get told but i get RA while getting max FTB and PP so you should be entiltled to it

i dont get heaps of cs though ($100 p/w)

[briggsy's girl]

the amount of ftba and rent assistance is child support dependent - so CQ is right saying if she is receiving max CS, she gets basic ftba and no RA.

[C~Q]

I don't get rent assis and I get basic FTB because I get so much CS ($2700 a month) so I suppose they class it as an income (which it is).

Beatrix I can't believe you get $100 per week WTF?

I just spoke to a lady at the family law courts and she said that they won't give advice on anything not related to children and neither will legal aid so she said i'm best off calling around lawyers and seeing who will give me enough info to see if it's worth pursueing like you said BG.

So mistree can I call around lawyers and see if any of them work with Legal Aid? Is that how it works? Man i'm so confused now!

[Yael]

My DH works for CSA. When he gets a chance over the next week or so (he is taking his first lot of hols for the year), i'll ask him to come in here and give some advice.

[C~Q]

Thanks Yael, that would be great

MT - I'll call around, thanks. I would have thought legal aid covered everything legal but who knows, i'll call them on Monday.

[Melly01]

Sorry to hear about all your problems with XH & CS.. It must be so frustrating.

I know I'm a bit frustrated with my X's $25 a month and now he's going around saying that he's paid off all his debt, got a new loan, bought a new car & heaps of othr stuff, but won't have to pay more CS until end of the financial year next year. This is with his new job as a "Qualified IT consultant" gr. I know I could have gotten him to do a private agrrement for CS but I just don't trust that he'd pay it every month.

But anyway, sorry for whinging.. I hope you get more based on what you and your children should be entitled to. I don't know much about any of it but it doesn't seem like it is a fair situation. I just wanted to offer my support.

[Amity]

THIS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICE PERTAINING TO YOUR OWN SITUATION - I RECOMMEND YOU OBTAIN INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...

Honey, spousal maintenance is something you really need to get a wriggle on, because if you leave it for a while after you've split, then the Court will take that into consideration when determining how much you REALLY need spousal maintenance.

You can get spousal maintenance without getting a property settlement - it's separate.

First you need to establish that you have a "need" for spousal maintenance. THat is, that your income exceeds your expenses on a weekly basis. For this purpose, your Centrelink entitlements are disregarded. There is a form on the Family Court website (it's called a Financial Statement) that you will need to fill in, particularly Part N is very important because it sets out what you spend for yourself and the children on a weekly basis. It's important not to under- or over-estimate on these things - be realistic and make sure that you have enough (eg you spend $X on gifts throughout the year, for Christmas, easter, birthdays, other kids birthdays, etc and then average that amount over the year, you'll be surprised, also clothes are expensive with kids, as are nappies etc).

So at the end of the week, you have a "need" of $X (ie your expenses are more than your income by $x).

You then need to establish that he has a capacity to pay. This should be fairly easy if he earns bucketloads.

He may have to pay spousal maintenance for a period of time, in a lump sum, or permanently. THis will depend on your own particular circumstances.

You can also ask the Court to make him pay your legal fees. If you have no other way of supporting yourself, this is certainly something to be aware of.

Get a lawyer to write to him, outlining what your reasonable needs are, and giving him a suggested figure on a weekly basis. This is IN ADDITION to your Child Support. Yes it will reduce your FTB, but he has a legal obligation to support you.

Best wishes.

[C~Q]

Divvy - Thank you so much! It's really hard at the moment because we're on good terms and he thinks there is still the possibility of us getting back together. I don't, but I also don't want to rush to push him out of my life till i'm really sure. So I don't want to antagonise him by saying "I want this and that" but perhaps I should...

Thank you for your advice, i'm going to ring around on Monday and see if anywhere offers free consultations.

I just still can't believe that even though he's going to earn around 300K this year he still only has to pay $27000 It just doesn't seem right **shakes head**

[briggsy's girl]

if he still thinks theres a "chance" he should be bending over backwards to try and make life as easy as possible for you!!