Maintenance payments

Thomas123

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this and if anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

I am a single father of 1, and I broke up with the mother after six months from the time she was born. I have always paid maintenance for my daughter. When we first broke up I was paying €150 euro a week and had my daughter from Friday after work and dropped her home Tuesday morning. Unfortunately I paid her in cash which I know is stupid. This continued for months until I copped on and reduced it to €100 a week.

In November of 2009 I lost my job and had to sign on the dole. I applied for back to education allowance and returned to college. I continued to pay maintenance but reduced it to €50 per week, and again had my daughter every weekend and collected her every morning and dropped her to pre-school.

In March of this year I found employment. For the first couple of months I found that I was paying €50 a week and had my daughter over 60% of the time, which diaries will prove. The child’s mother had found somebody new a couple of months before Christmas and had moved into his mother’s house and moved out of the apartment I had organized for her to stay (paid her deposit and months up front, had to apply for a loan). I found that I was paying for everything, school uniform, books, clothes and dance classes so I decided to stop the maintenance payments. This has not gone well. The mother has threatened to bring me to court and not see my daughter until I start paying again. I feel like I shouldn't have to, given the amount of expenses I have for the child and the amount of time I have her.

Should I just swallow my pride and start paying maintenance again or do I have a case, or should I just go to court and sort it out. If I go to court I am terrified I will get to see my daughter less than what I already do.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Moonbeam

I would ask her for a list of the expenses so that you can work out a suitable amount.
You also make a lsit of your expenses for the child.
Add in child benefit and then work out the rest based on how many days you each have her,is it 50% 50%?
Then there are the occasional expenses like books and uniforms for work out.
Maybe talk to a solicitor,keep a record of any threats shemakes against you.

rambutman

Have you applied for (or have already) guardianship?