The Child Maintenance Service only changes shared care if the change is considered established. This does not mean forever but for the longer term.
Around the 23rd March 2020, the CMS began classifying shared care changes due to Coronavirus as temporary. This has meant that whilst some parents are accepting of that, some parents are using Coronavirus as an excuse to stop shared cares changes being processed, or to alter existing patterns of shared care.
For example "You cant have the children for the next few weeks because you work in a hospital"
This would be a temporary change, but the receiving parent might be using the change to say its permanent, and hence get more money. A paying parent would be in right to challenge this as it is a temporary arrangement and should not affect care.
For example "You cant have the children for the next few weeks because you work in a hospital"
This would be a temporary change, but the receiving parent might be using the change to say its permanent, and hence get more money. A paying parent would be in right to challenge this as it is a temporary arrangement and should not affect care.
The trouble is that many are unsure of the rules on what exactly is a temporary change.
So I thought I would write to the CMS and establish, what defines temporary, and what doesnt. This is their comment.
DWP Response
DWP Response
"We have some information in relation to your request.
You asked for the definition we have of temporary or permanent. We hold no information on this although we may consider a period of around 12 weeks. However, you asked this with regard to where a shared care arrangement had changed temporarily due to Covid19. Should a paying parent advise they had temporarily changed the arrangement, we would treat this as temporary hence the change would not be reflected on the assessment. Similarly, should a parent advise the change is permanent, we would look to treat this as a permanent change and seek the view of the other parent ahead of reflecting the permanent change to the assessment."
So there you have it. If a change to shared care has been refused on the basis of a temporary arrangement, you need to ring them 12 weeks later and ask for it to be applied to your case, as the change they have determined as temporary, is actually permanent. That is assuming you have not done a mandatory reconsideration in the meantime.