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Other financial commitments (variations)
In some situations either the non-resident parent or the parent with care can ask us to take account of other factors when we work out child maintenance. This is because they think these factors might affect the child maintenance calculation. The legal term under the current scheme rules for taking account of other factors is a ‘variation’.
What factors might we take account of for non-resident parents?
If you are a non-resident parent, we might look at the amount of child maintenance again if you have special expenses of more than £10 a week, or £15 if your income is £200 or more, for:
- keeping in contact with your children (for example, if the parent with care has moved a long way away).
- supporting children who live with you who have disabilities or a long-term illness (if the special expenses are less than £10 or £15 a week, we may still take them into account).
- paying back a debt that you took on before you separated from the parent with care, and the debt was for the benefit of the family or a member of the family.
- paying boarding-school fees for children who you pay child maintenance for (we will take account of only the everyday living costs or ‘boarding’ part of the fees).
- making payments on a mortgage, loan or insurance policy to pay off a mortgage or loan on the home that you and the parent with care used to share. The parent with care and the children must still live in the house and you must have no legal interest in it.
We may also change the amount of child maintenance if you transferred property or money to the parent with care as part of a court order settlement or written maintenance agreement made before 5 April 1993. The property or money transferred must have reduced the amount of child maintenance made under the court order or written maintenance agreement. The value of your share of the property or money transferred, after taking off any unpaid mortgage or loan, must be £5,000 or more.
What factors might we take account of for parents with care?
If you are the parent with care, we might look at the amount of child maintenance again in the following circumstances:
- If the non-resident parent has assets (money or property) worth more than £65,000. Where property is concerned, this is the value after any outstanding mortgage which is still owed has been taken off. Assets do not include the home that the non-resident parent is living in or assets they use for their business, but could include a property they are renting out.
- If the non-resident parent is currently paying the flat rate or the nil rate but they have other weekly income of more than £100 that we would normally take account of. However, this does not apply if the non-resident parent is paying the flat rate because they are getting Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, or they are paying the nil rate because their income is less than £5 a week.
- If the non-resident parent controls their income and receives an income of more than £100 a week from a company or a business (for example, income received by company directors as dividends).
- If the non-resident parent has reduced the amount of income that we can take account of by diverting it to someone else for another purpose, for example into a business.
- If the non-resident parent seems to have a way of life associated with someone whose income is much higher than the income we used to work out child maintenance.
If the non-resident parent is currently paying the flat rate or nil rate, because they receive certain benefits, we might also look at the calculation again if they have other income of more than £100 a week. This has to be income we would normally take account of when working out child maintenance.
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