Complicated child maintenance situation

Entzee

Hi,
I'm hoping to get a few pointers here on what way I should proceed as regards child maintenance.

I am running my own new business, but have not reached a point yet of achieving regular and reliable earnings from this. I am set up under a new enterprise grant from social welfare where I receive normal weekly dole payments as assistance in starting the new business.

My ex partner is on back to education allowance from social welfare.

We had a baby 3 weeks ago. For the past few months I have been putting €50/week in to a savings account under my name for the baby. To date, this money has been used for buying various things for the baby like a car seat, cot etc.

While the account is under my name, the mum has had full usage of the money. Now that the child is born, I've to setup the long term method of providing maintenance.

Given both our situations, I'm not sure what the correct way of doing so is. Do I have to notify social welfare of the maintenance being paid? Does the fact that I'm receiving a new enterprise grant affect the process?

I'll be meeting with someone to discuss this but I thought I'd post here in the mean time.

While I'm here, I plan on continuing to give €50/week for now, which I know isn't much but I can't quite afford much more for the moment. I have read that the average cost of raising a child for the first year is approximately €5000 - €50/week covers half of this. Am I way off here?

Slydice

I remember a thread asking about maintenance a while back

I spent about 30 minutes reading various websites to see if there is any irish government guidance

then I came back and the thread was locked before anyone got a reply in... ouch frustrating.

Anyway, from what I remember, there is no irish government guidance. The moderator at the time said something like give all you can give. I thought that sounded a little unhelpful.

I think I found that while there was no guidance for what to do, there was something like the threat that your partner can take you to court to get court ordered maintenance so I'd say it'd be a good idea to come to some sort of agreement.

I did start looking at england and then found some guidance regarding northern Ireland. From what I remember, they had a scale or something. Basically, it worked out something like:
- if you get 50/100 per week or under, you must give min of 5
- I think it shot up (something like 10/50/100) with every extra 50 you earn until it hit some sort of max... hard to remember though

yabadabado

no set amounts here with out going to court also if you are on social welfare you are not obliged to pay any maintenance afaik.

Pinklady11

yabadabado wrote: »

no set amounts here with out going to court also if you are on social welfare you are not obliged to pay any maintenance afaik.

Sorry but your wrong there. My ex took me back to court to have the maintenance order squashed because he lost his job and was on social welfare. The judge told him he still had to contribute towards the childs upbringing. He ordered him to pay €50 per week.

yabadabado

fair enough,always thought it wasn't forced when a parent is on social welfare.

Pinklady11

To be honest I think that used to be the case. I often heard of men quitting their jobs and signing on the dole when they got a court summons for maintenance in order to get out of paying it. But from my own experience things have changed in that regard and rightly so!