Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

mookiandco

should be full amount. The maintenance is for the child not for the mother so is not dependant on her income. She should apply to csa as soon as possible, they are notoriously slow!

calleyw

Unless the Parent With Care (PWC) is on Income Support (IS)she should get all the money that the CSA says the father should pay.

But be aware it is a slow process. I believe they can take up to 36 weeks or 6 months from the intial claim. To get an assessement. I have no idea why it takes that long either.

If they can agree between themselves it is so much better than getting the CSA involved. As it makes it hard and makes people get very bitter.


Yours


Calley

swizzle_2

My friend has a court order that says maintenace is payable until the child ceases secondary education.

So is that the day they leave 6th form colleague?

calleyw

swizzle wrote:

My friend has a court order that says maintenace is payable until the child ceases secondary education.

So is that the day they leave 6th form colleague?

I would assume same lines as CSA take which is when child benefit stops. Which is the september after the 16th Birthday.

And the month after they turn 19 if still at college.


Yours


Calley

matto

When oh when will people realise access and maintenance are NOT linked....

UNfortunately this isn't quite true. The more nights a child spends with the parent without care the less maintenance has to be paid to the parent with care.

Orchid

matto wrote:

UNfortunately this isn't quite true. The more nights a child spends with the parent without care the less maintenance has to be paid to the parent with care.

So effectively there is an incentive for the Parent with Care to minimise contact with the Non Resident Parent - as they will get more money :mad:.

Add to this, a vindictive Parent with Care who hates the Non Resident Parent more than they love their children, and the situation becomes almost unbearable...not only for the Non Resident Parent and their new partner but ultimately for the children :mad:.

The love of money really is the root of all evil

barber1982

A colleague of mine is paying the CSA monthly to his ex partner... the money has been taken each month from his salary but it turns out the money is not going to CSA the employer isnt paying it.. what action should he take he has spoken to his employer and they are trying to blame the CSA but the CSA are adamant that they are not receiving anything from him.

Can he cancel the CSA and just pay directly to his ex partner

The_Geek

The fact the CSA have an attachments of earnings would imply that your colleague has not been paying his maintenance in the past.

I would say though that this is now an issue for the CSA and his employer to sort out. He in effect has paid his share.

chugalug

Sometimes the CSA take a while to catch up when payments come into the organisation. Sometimes the employer will deduct payments and by the time everything's gone through the system at work and then at the CSA there can be a delay of 6 weeks.

If and employer is deducting CSA payments it would seem that maintenance is not being paid voluntarily so no way round this I'm afraid. The only way the deductions can be stopped is if the ex is a 'private' customer (not on IS) and they request this.

He can ask the employer for details of all payments deducted and the dates sent to the CSA. He can ask the CSA for details of payments received. Be warned though this is a long process!! Keep all wage slips showing deductions cos these might be needed in the future.

Just a word of warning - when I had this problem I was advised that if the payments that had been deducted by the employer did not get to the CSA the account would go into arrears. Then you run the risk of court action for defaulting on maintenance. Also, it then becomes a matter for the employer and employee to sort out - ie for the employer to sue the employee for the return of his money. The CSA won't get involved in that at all. Carp system!

babysaver

If he can provide payslips showing that deductions have been made but no record of payment being received in CSA, the CSA can send Inspectors to look at employer's payroll records and the employer can be prosecuted. If his ex is happy to get the payments direct, she should phone CSA and they can sort it out - as long as she's not on IS as someone has said above (I'm in agreement that deductions from earnings are usually a last resort because of non-payment so maybe ex wouldn't agree to this?)