Coronavirus – my ex-partner isn’t working, I’m worried about child maintenance

Posted onMarch 27, 2020

If you are having to stay at home to look after your children and to try to home school them it is easy to get into a spiral of worries. From thinking about how best to do your weekly shop to then starting to worry about how you will pay for shopping if your ex-partner isn’t working because of the Covid 19 pandemic and therefore may not be able to pay you child maintenance for the children. Likewise, if you are a parent paying child support it is a worry to know how you are going to pay your own bills and child support on no salary or on a reduced income. In this blog we answer your questions on the impact of coronavirus on child maintenance payments.

COVID-19 update:

A message from OTS Solicitors - We have already brought online, and deployed the advanced infrastructure, processes and safeguards to allow our professionals and support teams to function fully remotely. Within our client service areas, our teams have implemented plans to ensure that our clients continue to be served without disruption. We would also like to remind our existing and new clients that we have offered a digital consultation option for several years and now in light of the Corona Virus developments we would encourage any clients seeking on-going consultations or new clients to contact our switchboard who will arrange an appointment via our online platform, skype or telephone conferencing

Online family law solicitors

The children and family law team of specialist online family lawyers at OTS Solicitors are here to help answer your family law questions whether they are about child maintenance, child care arrangements, your financial settlement or divorce. If you have a family law query and need family law, children law or financial settlement advice call us on 0203 959 9123 or complete our online enquiry form so we can arrange a Skype, video conference or telephone appointment for you.

Child maintenance and the impact of coronavirus

We are all being impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in some way or other, from those of you who are having to totally self-isolate and shield yourselves for twelve weeks because you fall in to the highly vulnerable category of people with significant underlying health conditions to those of you who are struggling to cope with the demands of home schooling boisterous children who don’t understand why they can't go to school, go to their football match or ballet class or see their friends or grandparents. Many parents are reporting that it is a nightmare to try and shield their children from the onslaught of media reports on Covid 19 and to hide their anxieties from their children, even if those anxieties just relate to how you will cope without child care supplied by grandparents or are about payment of child support.

The government is calling for us to all to pull together in the face of a national crisis. When it comes to worries about Covid 19 and payment of child maintenance the best legal advice that family law solicitors are giving is to communicate with your ex-partner about child maintenance. That is the case whether you are getting your child maintenance under:

A voluntary arrangement between you and your ex-partner
A child maintenance service assessment
A court order.

If it is difficult to communicate direct because of threats or coercion or because they are deep seated trust and communication issues then it is best to take legal advice and get a family law solicitor to help you sort out child maintenance.

Family law solicitors are recommending that parents talk openly to one another about child maintenance and whether the payer or payee’s income is affected by the financial fall out of the coronavirus outbreak because that is the best way to understand your ex-partner’s situation, for them to understand your fears about what a reduction or cessation in child maintenance will mean for your children and to help you reach a resolution, that is hopefully temporary in nature.

If you are being told that child maintenance payments will stop and you are suspicious about why your ex-partner is saying that because:

Your ex-partner is still working as they are classed a key worker
Your ex-partner is able to work from home
Your ex-partner isn’t able to work because of the coronavirus lock down but is still being paid by their employer
You know that your ex-partner has income protection cover

Then it is best to take legal advice on your child maintenance options as your legal options will depend on whether the current child maintenance payments are being paid on a voluntary basis, under a child maintenance service assessment or a family court order.

In addition, if your ex-partner is throwing figures at you and you are being put under pressure to agree:

Payment of no child maintenance
A reduction in child maintenance
A long term financial settlement as part of your divorce or your separation

Then it is best to take expert legal advice before agreeing to make changes to the child maintenance payments.

Will child maintenance be stopped because of coronavirus?

Whether your child maintenance will stop or reduce because of coronavirus will depend to a large extent on your ex-partner’s work. For example, if they are a key worker in the food retail sector then it should not. If your ex-partner is impacted by coronavirus but is still getting paid then it should not. There are however so many variables that it is best to take legal advice.

If your child maintenance is stopped and you don’t think it should have been then you have legal options, such as:

If your ex-partner pays child maintenance on a voluntary basis you could apply to the child maintenance service for an assessment of child support
If your ex-partner pays child maintenance under an existing child maintenance service assessment then you could ask the child maintenance service to enforce its assessment. If your ex-partner’s income has genuinely fallen then they should ask the child maintenance service to carry out a re-assessment to reduce the amount of child maintenance payable to you in accordance with child maintenance calculations. That is because the level of child maintenance payable is calculated on the basis of income rather than your ex-partner’s outgoings or your own outgoings
If you are going through financial settlement proceedings as part of your divorce you could ask the court to order child maintenance (the court has the power to do so in limited cases) or you could ask the court to order spousal maintenance.

Child maintenance, coronavirus and practical steps you can take

If you are worried about your child maintenance being reduced or stopping (or you are worried about how you are going to be able to pay child maintenance) then there are some practical things you can think about doing:

Speak to your ex-partner about how coronavirus is affecting their income – if this is too difficult for you to do then ask a family law solicitor to do so for you. If you are concerned about the accuracy of the information you are being supplied with you can ask for supporting paperwork or contact your family law solicitor or the child maintenance service for an assessment or re-assessment if that paperwork isn’t forthcoming
Although child maintenance is based on your ex-partner’s income rather than based on their outgoings or your own income or outgoings there may be things that they or you could do to reduce the impact on both of you. For example, looking at income protection policies if your ex-partner is self-employed and has such a policy, looking at how the government scheme for funding workers up to eighty percent of salary to a maximum figure will affect you and your ex-partner, recovering the cost of season tickets for travel that they/ you can’t undertake, asking for a mortgage holiday, looking at how your other outgoings have reduced, for example petrol or child care costs.

Family law solicitors say that whilst the best advice is to be open and communicate about child maintenance with your ex-partner and to try and thrash out something that you can both live with they recognise that isn’t always possible. So if you can't talk to your ex-partner or if you are worried about where you stand legally on child maintenance speak to a child maintenance solicitor about your options.

Online family law services

The children and family law team of specialist family lawyers at OTS Solicitors have lots of experience of working remotely using the latest secure technology. If you need to child maintenance advice or want to understand your legal options or need advice on any aspect of family law call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or complete our online enquiry form.

The family law team provide a full digital online family law service so call us on 0203 959 9123 for a Skype, video conference or telephone appointment with one of our specialist solicitors. Whilst we may not be able to meet you in person you will still receive the same excellent level of client service, attention to detail and bespoke family law advice tailored to your personal and financial circumstances and , if you need it, representation in remote court hearings. Call us on 0203 959 9123 for an appointment via our online platform, skype or telephone conferencing.

COVID-19 update: