CMS Variations

[BirminghamUK]

Hi, Can anyone advise please

i am a non resident dad, paying CMS monthly for my kid. We seperated 18 months ago and i only started seeing my daughter last week. I travel from Birmingham to London.

I want to put in a variation for contact costs

i was thinking of putting in my travel costs, contact centre costs £80 reg and £50 per hour (for room and supervisor) and costs for food and gifts i buy for my kid.

the contact centre plan changes monthly or every two months (i.e. hours of contact go up, which means my costs go up), does that mean ive got to fill out one of these forms whenever theres is a change?

does anyone know how the CMS process the variation application, do they expect me to send receipts, i mean they dont ask the resident parent to break down expenditure for the amount i pay month, what is the liklehood they say, produce receipts for petrol, train tickets etc. i mean what if in the foreseeable future i want to drive instead of taking the train?

Thanks in advance for any advice suggestions.

[warwickshire1]

I think CMS payment is based on your earnings and they wont take into account costs for supervised sessions and food and gifts you may buy your daughter unfortunately.

I am not sure if you can claim anything back for travel from Birmingham to London

[SteveyA]

(11-16-2019, 03:26 PM)BirminghamUK Wrote: Hi, Can anyone advise please

i am a non resident dad, paying CMS monthly for my kid. We seperated 18 months ago and i only started seeing my daughter last week. I travel from Birmingham to London.

I want to put in a variation for contact costs

i was thinking of putting in my travel costs, contact centre costs £80 reg and £50 per hour (for room and supervisor) and costs for food and gifts i buy for my kid.

the contact centre plan changes monthly or every two months (i.e. hours of contact go up, which means my costs go up), does that mean ive got to fill out one of these forms whenever theres is a change?

does anyone know how the CMS process the variation application, do they expect me to send receipts, i mean they dont ask the resident parent to break down expenditure for the amount i pay month, what is the liklehood they say, produce receipts for petrol, train tickets etc. i mean what if in the foreseeable future i want to drive instead of taking the train?

Thanks in advance for any advice suggestions.

Hi Birmingham UK


CMS will only work out the child maintenance on your gross salary before Tax & NI but after pension contributions. 

They will not factor in costs like you describe and will simply be a pecentage of your salary dependant on the number of nights you have them on average.  It will be deemed your choice to live away from your child.  

I will have the same from London to Salisbury and sadly it's up to us to travel / make it happen if we want to keep contact with our kids going forward. 

Best of luck