If you have had a nil CMS assessment and your partner/spouse had a high income previously then there are things you can do. You can apply for a variation for example on the basis of diversion of income. In order to succeed on this ground for variation the CMS must be satisfied both that your partner/spouse has the ability to control the income that he/she receives and that he/she unreasonably reduced the amount of income they would have received and which would have been take into account by the CMS in their calculations by diverting it to another person or for some other purpose.

As well as diverting sums to a business and taking a lower income, other examples of diversion include paying month to a third party (often a new partner or family member), to a pension scheme or towards other purposes such as using company assets for private use or business funds for day to day expenditure. This would include paying family members from a private company rather than or herself and reducing their own income to nothing,