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Date:13 NOV 2019
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Solicitor Advocate

David Burrows provides a rundown of child support appeals to the First-tier Tribunal & Upper Tribunal

The first article in this series explained the working of the child support scheme calculation with variation directions (now Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/2677) regs 69-71) from the formula (‘Breakdown cover’  NLJ 15 March 2019 p9). The scheme is operated by decision-makers within the renamed Child Maintenance Service (CMS) (formerly the Child Support Agency) which are the outward face of the secretary of state for work and pensions. They run the scheme for the secretary of state under the Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991) (as variously amended).

Any lawyer or spouse who deals with it knows that the family law system is based on the idea that the law in relation to family finance is a broad framework within which judges—and parties who can settle their cases—can operate with considerable latitude. Massive sums of family money—capital and income—can be transferred by judges as between a husband and wife within a framework of five sections of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) and almost no delegated legislation. More...

Read the full article here.