CSA Question

frugallass

JOHNSTONE1 wrote: »

Apparently she was pretty reasonable said she hadnt wanted to put a claim in but was told she had to in order to go on benefits and get a flat. H easked her if she would cancel her claim and arracnge something privately and she agreed. He offered her £200 a month until the child leaves school by standing order regardless of whether he is out of work or not ( we will ahve to scrape it together i guess) She was happy with this and said she would cancel the claim with CSA. Are we safe doing this he is going to set up a standing order into her bank account so we will have proof we have paid. Obviously we wont start paying privately until we are sure she has cancelled with the CSA.

Will they let her do this if she wants to?

Is there anything stopping her accepting out prive payments then starting with a new claim from the CSA again? If we have proof of payments will he be ok?

You are offering to pay a complete stranger £200 a month?

You do not know if your partner is the father of a baby yet he is willing to pay £200 a month for it? Blimey my ex pays me half that and is named on the birth certificate

How can she cancel the claim with the CSA? does that mean she is cancelling her claim for benefits and housing too?

If you are foolish enough to set up a standing order then you need to ensure that the 'reference' information contains wording such as "maintenance for **** (child's name)"

JOHNSTONE1

i thought the new rules stated that if both parties agreed to a private arrangement then benefits etc were not effected is not correct?

JOHNSTONE1

Nicifer_noonoo- Yes and now he believes he may be the father as said in my previous post he has offered her £200 a month privatley very reasonable i think considering he doesnt even know her!

I completly agree yoyur situtation sounds horrible and any man that abandons his partner when he finds out she preganant is dispicable and deserves to pay. My husband wasnt in a relationship with this woman, never knew she was pregnant etc so its not about the fact he hasnt seen him for 7 years it the fact he didnt even know he existed.

Despite all this he is trying to sort it out. Yes he made a mistake, he will be paying for this now for the next 10 years and has learnt his lesson. He, i believe is doing the right thing even though it will be detramental for our family. x

SuziQ

With the new regulations,she can arrange things privately,but if she recieves £200 a month from him she is supposed to declare this amount and her benefits will be reduced down to reflect this minus the £20 a week she is allowed to keep from it (so her benefit would be reduced down £120 per month as I understand it.) She may choose not to declare-but that is benefit fraud.He needs to ensure that he can prove what he is paying and how often to protect himself. It's a lot of money for him to find if you say he is out of work-how can he guarantee it? If he defaults and she has been honest then she will be in a mess if he stops paying for any reason and I would expect would open a claim against him.I still feel a DNA would have been better,expecially for the child to know for sure,and personally I feel she should pay half of the cost!!! Why should he bear the full cost? The number of dna tests they do on adults on that awful Jeremy Kyle programme becuase kids have grown up not knowing 'for sure'.

frugallass

JOHNSTONE1 wrote: »

i thought the new rules stated that if both parties agreed to a private arrangement then benefits etc were not effected is not correct?

sorry yeah if you're under the new system then you're right

nevertheless, that's her problem not yours.......but still, are you completely happy giving £200 a month away to a stranger for a kid that might not even be your hubby's?

SuziQ

frugallass wrote: »

sorry yeah if you're under the new system then you're right

quote]
That's not what Options told me-will have to go and find out the leaflet they sent me as I would hate to worry the OP -they have enough to worry about!

frugallass

SuziQ wrote: »

That's not what Options told me-will have to go and find out the leaflet they sent me as I would hate to worry the OP -they have enough to worry about!

just had a quick look at the website

Parents with care are able to keep up to £20 a week of any child maintenance paid before it affects the amount of benefit they may receive.

If the parent with care is on benefit, it is their responsibility to inform Job Centre Plus of the amount of maintenance received

frugallass

JOHNSTONE1 wrote: »

Yes he made a mistake, he will be paying for this now for the next 10 years and has learnt his lesson. He, i believe is doing the right thing even though it will be detramental for our family. x

Only a DNA test can prove he made a 'mistake' - why is he so reluctant to have one when it could save him £200 a month for the next ten years?

SuziQ

I'm afraid what I was told is partially correct ie some of the benefits are affected :

The way child maintenance affects benefits changed on 27 October 2008. If you're the parent with the main day-to-day care of your child and you're on benefits, you can now choose to arrange child maintenance through a private agreement or through the Child Support Agency (CSA). Whichever child maintenance option you choose, this is how it works.
Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance

• If you arrange child maintenance using the CSA, any money the other parent pays to the CSA is passed straight on to you.
• It's your responsibility to tell Jobcentre Plus how much child maintenance you receive and when you receive it.
• The first £20 of any child maintenance you receive each week has no effect on the amount of benefit that Jobcentre Plus pays you. After that, your child maintenance payments affect the level of benefits you receive.

For example, if you receive £30 per week in child maintenance, Jobcentre Plus will reduce your benefit by £10 per week. If you receive £40 per week in child maintenance, Jobcentre Plus will reduce your benefit by £20 per week.
Council Tax Benefit or Housing Benefit

• Any child maintenance money you receive has no effect on Council Tax or Housing Benefit.

Tax Credit award

• Any child maintenance money you receive has no effect on your Tax Credit award.

ETS-I find it bizzare that child maintenance would affect JSA and IS-the 2 components that are paid to the adult for their own needs as I understood it.It's no wonder NRP say they resent paying money across for their ex to spend when clearly the govt sees that money as partially funding the pwc!

Zara33

frugallass wrote: »

Only a DNA test can prove he made a 'mistake' - why is he so reluctant to have one when it could save him £200 a month for the next ten years?

TBH i think there may be a lot more to this story that we are being told...c'mon how many men would quiet happy to pay some woman £200 per month for a child that they don't even know is their's

Look at the amount of people who struggle to get money from the NRP and they know that the child is their's. Strange how he is willing to pay this amount rather than actually put the money to a dna test.