Using a pension to minimise CM payment

[Hans84Participant]

Hey there

I’m having a bother with the CMS not taking any notice of me at the moment.
my ex has never met his daughter who is now 6 but has paid what he should so far.

The issue is how much he pays into a personal pension, last year it was 24% of his income this year its 35%! It’s very obviously  to reduce the amount of maintenance he pays.
Anyone have any experience or ideas on this? Any help would be greatfully recieved.

xx

[GirlFridayParticipant]

Hi, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but a pension IS the only deduction which will affect CMS payments.. The CMS do not take into account paye/ni but they do deduct pensions contributions before they calculate the sum due. I am expecting my ex to have increased his in the last financial year so that my payments will go down when they are next reviewed as he was apparently ‘shocked & upset’ when I contacted the CMS …!

[Hans84Participant]

Well that wasn’t what I was hoping to hear, but thank you for your comments.

I have read online somewhere that the CMS see anything above 12% as excessive. Does anyone have any experience of this?

[GirlFridayParticipant]

Sorry! Have to say no I didn’t know there was a max but have just googled and you can lodge a variation to be considered if you think it’s excessive. Have you tried calling them? Other than the wait to speak to someone I have generally found them quite helpful?

Good Luck x

[Hans84Participant]

Yes I’ve rung and rung and lodged a variation appeal. Just keeping my fingers crossed now.

[GirlFridayParticipant]

I will keep mine crossed for you too!

🍀

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