Child Maintenance

Where there are family court proceedings, claims for child maintenance via the Child Maintenance Service are rarely far behind.  As the foremost researcher into the impact of the Child Maintenance Service (report here and key findings presentation here), I believe I am uniquely positioned to help clients address malpractice, maladministration and incorrect or inflated assessments.  In my experience the vast majority of parents are absolutely committed to financally supporting their children, but in the heat of family law proceedings the children are all too often used as leverage in the battle for the family estate.  

There are numerous ways to approach this, but the fundamental principle that we work with is that a parent cannot financially support their children effectively unless they can adequately meet their own basic living costs as a minimum.  From that point onwards, the focus should be about how both parents can be assisted to achieve a status quo where they are most likely to be able to generate wealth that assists them in meeting their needs and those of their children.  This can be achieved far more effectively where communication considers both parties fears, the childrens needs and what is realistically achievable.  Where clients are self employed or own a limited company, there are numerous strategies that can assist the parents in meeting their own needs and those of their children, while mitigating exposure to taxation and vexacious or unreasonable/unachievable/misplaced demands from a childs other parent.  

If you have fallen pray to a miscalculation by the Child Maintenance Service we have a fixed fee service for handling your complaint (subject to limitation), please book a free 30 minute consultation to discuss.  

If you need a financial strategy to give you some protection you can book an initial consultation to discuss, again the first 30 minutes are free.  You will need to be self employed, own your own limited company or be planning to do so for us to be able to craft an effective strategy for you.