Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

MJMum

---

welshcakes

MJMum is quite right and I can add from experience that cash in hand work by the absent parent is notoriously hard to get movement on from the CSA. The Inland Revenue isn't really all that interested wither unless we're talking £50k a year in undeclared income.

I know it's not what you want to hear and that it doesn't seem fair that he has found a comfortable lifestyle for himself and has coincidentally forgotten that his children are still a responsibility (and an expensive one).

The CSA would expect you to do all the detective work and present some good proof that he is working regularly for cash in hand. This would mean supplying names, dates, times, details descriptions of the work and their favourite - photographic evidence. TBH, I can understand why the CSA need all this information before they open an investigation. Without it, they simply write to the absent parent asking to provide details of any cash work they are doing, the parent writes back denying it and the CSA don't have the staff or resources to take it any further.

21cath

Thanks for the quick response, like you say Welshcakes, its unfair as he's got the life of riley! Hey ho i'm a firm believer in what goes around comes around!

Cheers Cath

kelloggs36

Welshcakes is right I'm afraid, although the CSA do have the powers to get bank account details of the NRP without their consent and can check what money has been paid into the account, so it may well me worth making a claim and then pushing for an investigation, but it is stressful! It depends on how strongly you feel about his responsbilities and whether you can just forget about it! Good luck, whatever you do!

spoilt_BUT_appreciate_it

I thought they did take the other person's wage into account..! I'm sure they did with my sister but perhaps it's only if they were to marry..

auntie_pie

cor blimey! have just joined forum and thought i would take a quick look at 'child support agency' chat!..... started at page 1, and realised it was from a few years ago, so have skipped to the end, 57 pages later!

have come to the conclusion that maybe i should write to my MP.... i have been waiting 14 YEARS for some joy from them!!... my daughter will be 18 in may!!!

Zara33

auntie pie :eek: yes i would could down the MP route straight away!!

welshcakes

Ah but to be fair Aunty Pie, all new government departments need a little time to get through the inevitable teething problems ... a bit like your grow up daughter would have been doing when they started your case! Fourteen years is not a long time in civil service time unless you owe them (and you don't necessarily have to owe them, they just need a system glitch that says you do).

kelloggs36

spoilt_BUT_appreciate_it wrote: »

I thought they did take the other person's wage into account..! I'm sure they did with my sister but perhaps it's only if they were to marry..

Nope, under the old rules (CS1) the CSA ask for the partner's income in order to determine whether the NRP has enough money in the household to pay the maintenance that they have already calculated using his sole income. In many cases it makes no difference to the assessment, particularly if there are children in the household, but sometimes it means that the NRP can afford to pay the full assessment instead of part of it, due to the new partner's income. HOwever, the new partner's income is NOT used to calculate the amount he should be paying. It is complicated, and it is not necessary to produce the information of the new partner, BUT it will mean that if the household income was too low to pay the full assessment, then the cSA can't apply this reduction as they don't know the household income, and in these cases the assessment is HIGHER than it would otherwise be due to the new partner not supplying their details.

Being married has nothing to do with it whatsoever and it is often misinterpreted to mean that the partner's income is used to calculate the assessment - it isn't, it is used to ensure that the household income does not fall below a certain amount after the maintenance is paid. If it would, then the maintenance is reduced until it hits that minimum amount.

kelloggs36

auntie_pie wrote: »

cor blimey! have just joined forum and thought i would take a quick look at 'child support agency' chat!..... started at page 1, and realised it was from a few years ago, so have skipped to the end, 57 pages later!

have come to the conclusion that maybe i should write to my MP.... i have been waiting 14 YEARS for some joy from them!!... my daughter will be 18 in may!!!

If you need any advice about your case, please PM me and I can see if I can direct you. I am an ex face to face officer within the CSA, who is due to return to them next year (boo hoo!) I am currently on a career break.