Can anyone help answer a few CSA questions?

catsnfings

My partner is on CSA1 and is paying £444 a month for one child. Earning £1581 a month net and paying that much is nearly crippling him.

Anyway my questions are
1) She has done a deductions order awarding half the housing to me - which is fair enough as I pay half - can he do the same?

She claims £156 per week for housing. She has remarried to someone who works in the services so would be on good money. If I have to take half the housing then so should he surely?

2) On his assessment it shows £16.75 per week (72.58 p.m.) for 'premiums'. We asked what this was and were told it was Income Support. We are confused as to why she could claim I.S. when he would work full time and be earning a reasonable amount.

I've never claimed any kind of benefit so have no idea about it. Does anyone know what I.S. she could be claiming? Also, she has two other children - one whose father died and the other with the new husband. Would CSA calculate the Income Support based on all three children or would they realise that he should only be contributing towards one?

3) Her weekly exempt income is £338.46 but in the list of things it includes, it only shows the 156 housing cost. Any clues as to decipher this bit of the assessment? There is no income included in the assessment for her.

kelloggs36

The exempt income is housing costs, plus £60.50 for her, and £52.59 per child plus a family premium of £16.75 per week.

She has 2 children living with her, plus her housing costs and her own personal allowance - this makes up the total exempt income.

If there is no income from her, then she must be getting some type of either benefit or working tax credits which makes her income exempt from being assessed. The £16.75 family premium is because she has children.

IN answer to your first question, you can indeed ask for a departure on the grounds that her partner contributes towards the housing costs, but if she has no income of her own, it will fail. Only if she had income used in the assessment would that make any difference.

This is looking a bit odd if she has 3 children as she should be given the allowance for 2 and a half children if her hubby works, which would increase her exempt income still further (it would be £367 per week).

catsnfings

Sorry Kelloggs I don't understand?

CSA have said that the housing costs are 100%. If you are saying we cannot get a departure of 50% awarded to her partner because she has no income then how can she claim any of the housing??

If she has no income so cannot pay any of it then how can she claim 100%.

If her partner is paying it all then why is it included at all???

If her partner has all the money then I cannot see any reason why he cannot pay 50% of the housing????

jacklink

i would report her anonomously online for benefit fraud. she has a partner who is bringing in money yet it seems she hasnt declared this.

kelloggs36

Even if you were paying it all, your other half would get all the housing costs awarded against his net income - that's how it works!

Can you give a full breakdown of the assessment please, word for word so that I can see if they have included any net income for the PWC? what does it say under 'other parent's income'? does it say nil?

Strapped

Here's a link to the old scheme leaflet:

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/about/publications-old-leaflets.asp

You could go ahead and apply for a departure on the basis of the PWC's partner's contribution to housing costs, but to be honest, if the PWC has no income then it won't in practice make any difference to your assessment I think.

kelloggs36

That's correct Strapped - that is becasue the PWC has no income at all from which to do an assessment, so it makes no difference what the housing costs are!

catsnfings

Sorry Kelloggs for not replying sooner I couldn't find my post.

As I explained in my first post - my other half does not get 100% of the housing costs because his ex did a departure and had them give half to me. So they do his assessment and then Departures get their hands on it and recalculate it deducting 50% of the housing costs which puts his assessment up from 243.88 a month to 444 a month.

The section for other parents income says
income after deductions = 0
Exempt income = 338.46
this includes
housing costs = 156.02
travel = 0
property/capital = 0

income included in assessment = 0

Are you saying that all of the 338.46 is exempt so even if we did a departure for half her housing costs to be given to her husband, it still won't free up some of her exempt income to reduce the assessment?

Is the 338.46 an actual figure of what she gets in various benefit or is it a hyperthetical figure of what she is allowed before CSA will look at using anything over that amount? (if that makes sense ha ha)

catsnfings

Sorry Kelloggs for not replying sooner I couldn't find my post.

As I explained in my first post - my other half does not get 100% of the housing costs because his ex did a departure and had them give half to me. So they do his assessment and then Departures get their hands on it and recalculate it deducting 50% of the housing costs which puts his assessment up from 243.88 a month to 444 a month.

The section for other parents income says
income after deductions = 0
Exempt income = 338.46
this includes
housing costs = 156.02
travel = 0
property/capital = 0

income included in assessment = 0

Are you saying that all of the 338.46 is exempt so even if we did a departure for half her housing costs to be given to her husband, it still won't free up some of her exempt income to reduce the assessment?

Is the 338.46 an actual figure of what she gets in various benefit or is it a hyperthetical figure of what she is allowed before CSA will look at using anything over that amount? (if that makes sense ha ha)

Strapped

catsnfings wrote: »

The section for other parents income says
income after deductions = 0
Exempt income = 338.46
this includes
housing costs = 156.02
travel = 0
property/capital = 0

income included in assessment = 0

Are you saying that all of the 338.46 is exempt so even if we did a departure for half her housing costs to be given to her husband, it still won't free up some of her exempt income to reduce the assessment?

Is the 338.46 an actual figure of what she gets in various benefit or is it a hyperthetical figure of what she is allowed before CSA will look at using anything over that amount? (if that makes sense ha ha)

It's the latter. HTH.

catsnfings

Ok thanks.

I'm glad - Phew! the thought that she got £300 + in benefit per week would drive me nuts.