How much maintainence?

Mick0

I recently lost my job and I'm now in receipt of social welfare. I used to pay €100/week in child maintainence but can no longer afford this. Anyone else in this situation? How much is a fair amount to pay?

LegacyUser

Mick0 wrote: »

I recently lost my job and I'm now in receipt of social welfare. I used to pay €100/week in child maintainence but can no longer afford this. Anyone else in this situation? How much is a fair amount to pay?

I think a 100 a week is very very generous! Maybe you were on a very good wage. Actually how many kids was this to cover? If one, very generous.
I asked for 50 for one child. I'm sometimes guilty of accepting, which I know is crazy. More so when I'm struggling financially and he's on a good wage. But that's who I am! He's crap at handling money, so as a result I feel he is struggling! I know. Madness...

James Jones

If you recently lost your job then you can apply for the One Parent Family Tax Credit. It should be back-dated for 3 (possibly 4?) years. Although it refers to "Custody", and says that you must have custody "for the whole or part of a tax year"", you can get the tax relief once your child has stayed with you for one night of each year.

In relation to a fair amount of maintenance, there is no way of assessing this. However, have a look at page 53 of the report Post-Separation Parenting:

"To summarise the maintenance payments in the 87 cases examined in this study, maintenance is only payable when there are dependent children (defined as under the age of 18) or older children (up to the age of 23 if attending college). Child maintenance payments were made in 54 cases out
of the total of 87 observed. Payments ranged from €140 per month to €3,000 per month. Coulter (2009b, p. 64) noted that where maintenance was specified, the amounts varied from €60-€100 per week per child, along with educational and medical expenses. There is no payment actually stipulated by any statutory agency, but it is related to the willingness of parents to pay it. A typical lower income level payment would be €75 or €80 per child per week. This is expected to contribute to the child’s living costs, housing, clothes, food, education, mobile phone and other sundry expenses. The residential parent will also receive a Child Benefit Allowance. If a husband was unemployed or ill, the amount of maintenance ordered was lower".

Was your maintenance Court Ordered? If yes, then you have to continue paying this amount until you get the Court Order varied. If no, then you are under to obligation to pay any maintenance whatsoever (but do not even think about not paying towards the upkeep of your child).
However, I suggest you try your best and a possible solution would be to figure out what % of your income did you pay while employed and then apply this % to your Social Welfare benefits. If you received redundancy, this will be taken into consideration if you end up in Court.

Orion

Definitely look into the tax credit as James Jones suggested - you may be due a tax rebate.

If the money you are paying is not court mandated then talk to the mother and explain the circumstance. If you can come to an amicable arrangement that's the best solution.

Gadfly Girl

kupsur wrote: »

I think a 100 a week is very very generous! Maybe you were on a very good wage. Actually how many kids was this to cover? If one, very generous.
I asked for 50 for one child. I'm sometimes guilty of accepting, which I know is crazy. More so when I'm struggling financially and he's on a good wage. But that's who I am! He's crap at handling money, so as a result I feel he is struggling! I know. Madness...

Hi, I'm sorry but 100 for one child is a reasonable amount, I'd strongly suguest seeking more. Unless you had a large income yourself 50 is not enough to support a child to have adequate shoes, clothes, school materials etc etc

The Corinthian

Mick0 wrote: »

I recently lost my job and I'm now in receipt of social welfare. I used to pay €100/week in child maintainence but can no longer afford this. Anyone else in this situation? How much is a fair amount to pay?

Try to work it out something with the mother, in particular something where you can take care of your child more often, freeing her up more to work and/or decreasing child care costs. Looking at getting a tax rebate is also a very good idea. €50 p.w. is probably a realistic amount while you're unemployed.

If there is a court order stating that you need to pay €100 p.w., you will need to go back to court to get this varied, especially if the mother refuses to come to a compromise.

Gadfly Girl wrote: »

Hi, I'm sorry but 100 for one child is a reasonable amount, I'd strongly suguest seeking more. Unless you had a large income yourself 50 is not enough to support a child to have adequate shoes, clothes, school materials etc etc

€50 p.w. is not supposed to support a child; after all the mother also has an obligation to contribute her money twoards the financial support of the child.

Culcher

The Corinthian wrote: »

€50 p.w. is not supposed to support a child; after all the mother also has an obligation to contribute her money twoards the financial support of the child.

Naturally; but I think Gadfly Girl was referring to the fact that, in this case, the father is in good circumstances, while the mother is struggling.

manutd83

I was paying 100euro a wk for 1 child obviously till i was let go from work,i thought i was paying a fair amount 4 the upkeep of my son,but when i ended up on the dole i started to pay 40euro,she wasnt to impressed,thankfully im back in work now

The Corinthian

Culcher wrote: »

Naturally; but I think Gadfly Girl was referring to the fact that, in this case, the father is in good circumstances, while the mother is struggling.

Maybe, but even if a father is only paying €50 p.w. that doesn't mean that the child is only being supported to the tune of €50 p.w., in theory the figure is closer to €100 p.w. if you include the mother's own contribution. People tend to forget that.

I certainly agree that if on a good wage then this amount may well be too low.

In the case of the OP though, he's just lost his job and is on the Dole, so around €50 p.w. is probably a realistic amount while unemployed.

Gadfly Girl

The Corinthian wrote: »

€50 p.w. is not supposed to support a child; after all the mother also has an obligation to contribute her money twoards the financial support of the child.

Yes thank you, I'm aware of that. I still stand by my comment.

Gadfly Girl

The Corinthian wrote: »

Maybe, but even if a father is only paying €50 p.w. that doesn't mean that the child is only being supported to the tune of €50 p.w., in theory the figure is closer to €100 p.w. if you include the mother's own contribution. People tend to forget that.

I certainly agree that if on a good wage then this amount may well be too low.

In the case of the OP though, he's just lost his job and is on the Dole, so around €50 p.w. is probably a realistic amount while unemployed.

Ah yes, I wasn't refering to the OP... I think we're actually on the same page here. If you look at my original post I was encouraging another poster to request more. In the case of the OP one cannot get blood from a stone, and he'she must be able to live within their income so yes E50 might be reasonable depending on the finer details. It's a difficult situation, I would suguest name a lower amount you can manage OP and maybe offer to try and help a little more around back to school times etc. Also offering to take over childcare to decrease costs is a good idea. Your time is also very valuable to your child