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

[SOLOMUMMYParticipant]

Paying into a pension could be to reduce payments but I’d imagine not especially as this only really affects taxing and ni payments. And is regardless a third of his income reduced.

How old is he? If he’s not contributed enough in the past then h may have been advised that this is the only way to get a decent pension pot.

Regardless of intention, I’d  think you won’t get the case reviewed as he’s perfectly entitled to do this and it isn’t counted as diverting funds to deprive you of maintenance.

[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!

🍀

[SOLOMUMMYParticipant]

I wouldn’t anticipate that it will result in an increase for you though if he can show that as a result of the split he is now less financially secure compared to before the split. He has a right to plan for retirement etc. And given that most of us need to up our pension contributions it would be contradictory for him to then be penalised.

[Author]

Posts