acsess,guardianship-maintenence-benefits????

dubmum

hi, the father of my 2 children has applied for access, guardianship and joint custody, we are on good terms and fairly flexible about days etc (one night during the week and one night and day at the weekends), does anybody no of pro's and con's of access, joint custody and guardian ship regarding where it will leave me in terms of benfits?? i get maintenence but not court ordered, but feel it is a fair ammount. does anyone also know the ammount of maintenence you can recieve with out it getting deducted from your benefits??? thanks :rolleyes:

Superdaddy

I've no idea about claiming benefits, but i have a lot of experience of courts and conflict. You do not want to get involved in either. Sit down together and discuss what he wants. Sign a statuatory declaration for guardianship infront of your solicitors or peace commisioner. There is no need to go to court to give him guardianship, a signed and witnessed declaration is perfectly fine. I have had my one tested in the high court on a couple of occasions and it stood the test.
If he wants more access give it to him. He sounds like a decent chap from what you say. At the moment he has probably found out that he has no rights to his children and he is simply trying to make sure that if things ever turn sour, that they can't be deprived of their father. He has probably heard stories like mine and wants to avoid that hardship.

Make an agreement between yourselves and have your solicitors make it a court order, it's very straight forward. You could also do it without solicitors by going to the court office and asking them to put you on the list and have your agreement completed by going into the judge yourselves.
You don't have to show that agreement to anybody else including social welfare and all court proceedings are in camera (not open to the public).

Best of luck, keep the peace at all costs, if you don't it will cost you all you have.:(

Nevyn

Even if there is joint custody usually the child/ren will still have a primary home which is the one they reside in the most, and that parent usually is the one which will get the children's allowance and other benefits. But once a child/ren is resident at least 1 night a year the parent can claim single parent's tax credits.

angelfire9

Superdaddy wrote: »

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You don't have to show that agreement to anybody else including social welfare and all court proceedings are in camera (not open to the public).

Have to disagree here, social welfare will ask for a copy of court ordered maintenance if you are claiming jobseekers benefit and/or lone parents ditto the HSE for community welfare allowance

Big Bag of Chips

Because he is applying for guardianship, I assume you weren't married. because he would automatically have guardianship if you were. If you weren't married then he is under no obligation to pay YOU maintenance, just the children. And if he has custody of the 50% of the time, he will most probably not have to pay any maintenance because he will have the children the same time as you, and spend roughly the same on them (you may still agree between yourselves to share the cost of Christmas, back to school, or for him to give you (or you give him!) a lump sum at these times etc)

As someone else mentioned, if possible keep it out of court. Make the decisions that suit yourselves - if you don't decided between yourselves, it will be taken out of your hands and a judge will decide for you.

Edit: Are you declaring your maintenance? If you declare it - or if he proves he is paying it, your lone parents could be stopped or reduced by the amount of maintenance you are receiving.

dubmum

its all so confusing!! yes already declaring maintenence and they havent touched it, but its probably not as much as the courts would decide on-he doesnt have a well paid job and has high rent etc so idont mind 2 much. Are there any benefits of gaining gardianship etc through the courts that we couldn't do privately through a solicitor?

Big Bag of Chips

None whatsoever.

It's exactly the same thing.

alainn08

Hi


Although you may be on good terms with the father of your child he may just want to have 'everything in writing' just in case anything goes wrong.

Guardianship: When granted guardianship which is mostly always awarded except in extreme circumstances.This just means he will have a say in the upbringing of the child(ren) ie religion,education

Access:You mentioned that he see's the child(ren) during the week etc he may just want to have the access in writing and may be looking for more access ie overnight access /all weekend access...in my experience they dont generally award overnite access the first time in court.

Maintenance: I know you mentioned he is giving money at the mo.He is applying for this so an amont can be agreed too. Usually they give the father a form where they have to fill in how much rent they pay,bills,car expenses etc and they judge by that how much he can realistically afford to pay every month/week.

With regards to your earnings being affected...

If you are claiming lone parent which is E196 a week I think..you can work up to 20 hours before anything is deducted even if you are recieving maintenance nothing would change once you work 20 hours or under ..if you work full time this would change.I'm not sure on the amount but I think the court look at your earnings and how much maintenance wise and they judge by that.


Best of luck..Not a nice place to have to go but if it means getting everything in writing once and for all and your child(ren) getting supported by you and your ex its worth it

alainn08

Sorry forgot to include joint custody....


If you werent married to the father you have full custody..and he gets access and can apply for guardianship which gives him some rights so a say in education ,religion other matters relating to the child(ren)

Very very unlikeyl to get joint custody this means living half the week with mum and half the week with dad.....or one week with mum one week with dad for your kids.....not nice and not likely AT ALL if you werent married.

If he has applied for guardianship he'll get that but unlikely to get joint custody...judges tend to want the child to stay with mum or whoever is the primary carer of the child.

PM me if you have any questions..my partner has been through all of this so have reasonable knowledge on the subject!

Also you may be entitled to free legal aid ..you pay E50 towards the solictior costs on the day....look at citizensinformation for this