Help with maintenance

[thorn]

I'm very new to this forum, but am hoping someone can help me out, fingers crossed!
The father of my son left the UK unexpectedly in 2009 to start a new life in Finland, unfortunately without organising support for our son or even saying goodbye. Since then, with help from a local solicitor (whom I can now no longer afford) we managed to get an address for him, and reached a point where he would call our son once a week. My son wanted to be able to phone him, but his father won't let us know his phone number and has now moved house again without providing a new address,
After many letters and emails from my solicitor, we came to an agreement that maintenance would be paid each month. My ex said that he was told that an amount which amounted to 15% of his wages each month was normal in Finland, so I basically had to accept that, as I could not find information anywhere as to what was acceptable.
My ex works long hours, more than 35 a week, and has at times struggled to maintain the phone calls organised with our son.
The maintenance payments are being paid in later and later each month, and keep going down, despite him working the same amount of hours. Our latest payment was £145 which is around €168 a month. Could someone please tell me if that seems like an acceptable amount for a full time worker to be paying each month for their child, or if it would be a normal amount in Finland?
If I ask for proof of what he earns he is very evasive so it's very hard to see if what he is paying is fair.
Who can help me access the correct information, or work out what is an acceptable amount?
Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

[Rip]

An earlier thread about the same topic: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=48512#p398737

[thorn]

Hi Rip, thanks! I had read this thread though and did not understand at all how to come to a conclusion based on my situation, it seemed a very convoluted way to come to a financial agreement and could easily be different each month.

[rinso]

€ 168,-/month is within the ballpark in Finland.
If there is no official agreement, it will be difficult the change the situation. (you mention nothing about a divorce or so)
And since (I assume) you were living in the UK when the separation took place, the English legislation is the one to follow.
(There is a EU legislation about handling multi cultural divorces, but I don't know if it dates back to 2009.)

[Rip]

the English legislation is the one to follow

I am not sure, as AFAIK also his town of residence could also handle the case (Although getting a court decision in UK and having it enforced here would still be an option). If you give the name of the town here, you could get the local child welfare official's contact information and you could perhaps ask some general information.