As per above, my friend is already paying an agreed amount of maintenance (€80.00 pw) to his estranged wife for their son. He also has the child over 3-4 nights a week and contributes to clothes, food, shoes, food, toys etc. He received a letter from the Social Welfare saying that he must now pay €135.00 per week maintenance.
His weekly wage comes out to €650.00, after tax. He pays rent of roughly €160.00 per week, the usual household bills, petrol, insurance and puts money into a savings account for the child weekly also, which he wants to be used towards the child's education in the future.
Are Social Welfare being fair with this demand? This seems to have come about after the wife cut back her working week and applied for assistance from Social Welfare. In the letter they sent they say that he has the child 0 (zero) days per week, but this is untrue as he usually has the child from Friday night to Monday morning, as well as 1 or 2 other nights during the week. They also have not taken in to account the money he spends weekly on the child, apart from the maintenance.
I think he has it in his mind that he would pay an extra €15 - €20.00 extra to his wife per week, but that the €135.00 figure is pushing it a bit (from the social welfare side, his wife has not made any demands for anything extra)
How should he approach Social Welfare about this?
Thanks in advance for the advice.
His weekly wage comes out to €650.00, after tax. He pays rent of roughly €160.00 per week, the usual household bills, petrol, insurance and puts money into a savings account for the child weekly also, which he wants to be used towards the child's education in the future.
Are Social Welfare being fair with this demand? This seems to have come about after the wife cut back her working week and applied for assistance from Social Welfare. In the letter they sent they say that he has the child 0 (zero) days per week, but this is untrue as he usually has the child from Friday night to Monday morning, as well as 1 or 2 other nights during the week. They also have not taken in to account the money he spends weekly on the child, apart from the maintenance.
I think he has it in his mind that he would pay an extra €15 - €20.00 extra to his wife per week, but that the €135.00 figure is pushing it a bit (from the social welfare side, his wife has not made any demands for anything extra)
How should he approach Social Welfare about this?
Thanks in advance for the advice.