Under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989, an unmarried parent can apply for financial provision for their child from the other parent. The Family Court recently granted a mother’s application for interim relief in Schedule 1 proceedings, ordering the father to pay £6,250 per month in maintenance as well as substantial legal costs.
The father, a high-profile entrepreneur, was very wealthy and had taken the ‘millionaire’s defence’, which limits unnecessary enquiry into a respondent’s resources when the respondent has conceded that they are capable of meeting any order the court might reasonably make. His relationship with the mother had ended before their child’s birth and he had not met any expenses relating to the child except for paying one term’s nursery fees. The mother issued proceedings under Schedule 1 and made an application for interim relief.
Considering the parties’ resources, the Court accepted that the father was very wealthy and could afford any reasonable provision it might make. It did not need to know more for the purposes of the interim application. The mother had savings and investments of about £180,000 and was currently living with the child in her parents’ home. She was self-employed and the Court fixed her net income at £50,000 per year, based on her income in recent tax years. She claimed that she owed her parents £164,000, £92,000 of which related to the child. The Court noted that it would be able to decide at the trial whether or not these sums were loans and how they should be treated. It declined to assume that they were a source of income, as the father suggested, observing that it was unsurprising that the mother’s parents would help her in circumstances where the father was not paying anything.
The mother had applied for a lump sum of more than £94,000 relating to the costs of the child’s birth and subsequent expenses, including part of the sums she said were owed to her parents. The Court did not consider this part of the application urgent and decided to deal with it at the trial.
Considering the provision sought for legal costs, the Court remarked that both parties should have proper representation and that the father could afford to pay for representation for both parties in a claim relating to their child’s needs. The father was ordered to pay £90,000 towards the mother’s legal costs to date, £160,000 towards the costs of the Schedule 1 proceedings and £40,000 towards child arrangements proceedings.
The Court found that the mother’s appropriate interim budget, taking into account expenditure linked to the child, was £125,000 per year. The Court considered that the father should pay the shortfall of £75,000 per year, or £6,250 per month, between that figure and her net income. This included a contribution to the running costs of her parents’ home.