Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

snolly

ritac - the csa only consider capital if its over £65,000 i believe.

not sure on your other point - does the ex still have contact with the kid?

calleyw

ritac1 wrote:

This is a whole new area for me.

Does anyone know whether CSA would take account of the Capital that my ex-partner has when deciding how much maintenance he should pay? He has very little income but substantial capital.

Also, does anyone know what stance the CSA now takes on pursuing a violent ex-partner hence there being some risk to the mother and children if a claim is pursued?

Thanks for any help anyone is able to give.

They will take £65K of captial for paying maintenance but does not include any equity in their home.

If you as the PWC believe that there is risk of violence the CSA will not pursue a claim. I believe that it is all on there website.


http://www.csa.gov.uk/


HTH


Yours


Calley

krashovr10ad

++

Firstly - I am not against paying maintenance for my son. I just want a fair and simple system.

As a single man and working 40 hours a week - I was paying the CSA £75 a week for 1 child and £50 a month for arrears (£350 from my net wages of £1050). This is based on the Old system calcluations.

I now live with my new partner and her daughter (who gets nothing via the CSA). She works 16 hours and brings home about £80. She lost her working family tax credits, housing benefit and similar when I moved in. We were better off living apart - but we both didn't want that!!

My new CSA assessment came back yesterday and its dropped to £64 a week(no mention of arrears yet). After trying to figure out what the CSA had done to calculate my assessable income - I was about ready to give up work because there seems no point in working.

It would seem that although they havent counted my partners wages as household income - they have used it to cover the costs of her child. This means that my partner has no personal allowance.

Is this right? I get a personal allowance, my son gets a personal allowance (which I am paying towards) but my girlfriends daughters allowance comes from my girlfriends wages and my girlfriend gets nothing!!

As it stands at the moment - we are left with £30 more than being on benefit. I really can't see the point of working 6 days a week for that...

++

CGG

CGG wrote:

Hi
My husband recently had his child maintenance payments reviewed. At the Magistrates Court he was presented with a complete print-out of his payments from day one, to date. They showed arrears, to which he disputed existed. A date was set for him to attend Court again with either proof of payments made or his payment for the arrears.
He requested from the Bank copies of cheques paid to the Court, which had all cleared okay for around the time the 'arrears' appeared on the print-out. These did not arrive in time from the Bank before he had to appear in Court. He went along, armed with Bank Statements (although they weren't proof of payment in themselves), and a copy of the letter written to the Bank asking for copies of the relevant cheques. Anyway, the 'hearing' was adjourned for a few more weeks to allow the Bank time to dig out these cheques from 3 years ago.
Copies of the cheques have now arrived. On checking them against the Courts print-out, these payments have clearly not been incuded on it. There are no arrears, but clearly human error kicked in,in the Courts accounts office.
We have posted copies of the cheques, along with a stiffly written letter to the Court asking where they allocated these payments at the time they received them, (three years ago), as they clearly weren't put on my husbands Child Maintenance account.
But as he has already lost half a days pay in attending Court over the apparent 'arrears', which were proven as non-existent, we wonder if he can apply to the Court for some form of recompense as this was their clerical error.
Has anyone had any similar experience? Thanks

Just an update. The Court have confirmed there are indeed no arrears. In fact they state the maintenance account is in credit!
Needless to say tho', no apology was offered for the stress their incompentance caused us.

dottyanne

CGG - you didnt seriously expect them to admit their !!!! up did you - how outrageous of you!!:eek: seriously tho' i'm glad you showed them they cant just expect to get away with things like this - it makes me so mad!! :mad: well done you!! dotty xx

dottyanne

Thats the CSA for you!!

sunflower_2

krashovr10ad wrote:

++

I was about ready to give up work because there seems no point in working.

no point in working?

what about working to feed your son?
doesnt he eat?

lisa76

my hubby pays csa for his son, and when we had a baby we wondered if payments would go down because another child is in the equation. basically they looked at if my wages could support my child (using whatever stupid calculations they use) and they decided i could. BUT they did look at our joint mortgage, council tax and water payments and take them into consideration - i'm guessing you live in a council house and do not have a mortgage, but they surely cannot expect your partner to survive on £80 a week. I would appeal straight away - and get together any documentation of debts, bills etc and send them off with your appeal.
sorry i'm not of much help, but i really think you need to make a fuss.
also why is she not getting any financial help for her daughter???

Thriftylady

krashovr10ad wrote:

++


As a single man and working 40 hours a week - I was paying the CSA £75 a week for 1 child and £50 a month for arrears (£350 from my net wages of £1050). This is based on the Old system calcluations.


My new CSA assessment came back yesterday and its dropped to £64 a week(no mention of arrears yet). After trying to figure out what the CSA had done to calculate my assessable income - I was about ready to give up work because there seems no point in working.





++

if it was £75 and now its £64 a week, does that not mean it has gone down? is that not better?

mamaoba

The point is you keep your dignity and show your son that you work to provide for him surely? As it is he's getting less support from you now than before you moved in with the new partner.

It's not his choice to have been born - it was yours to conceive him and it's your responsibility - not mine or anyother taxpayer's to raise him.

The answer is to look into training or other other opportunities for getting a better paid job.

I'm a single parent too so I'm not unsympathetic, it's just I have always believed that "you make em you raise em" excepting if you or the child is ill or disabled wherever humanely possible. Benefits are supposed to be a saftey net, not a way of life.

He'll be able to hold his head up and say his dad works hard to provide for him, thereby setting an example where he'll want to the same for his own family someday. He'll be proud of you when he's an adult:beer: , rather than see you as a waster on benefits. Kids learn most by what we show them, not by what we tell them and the benefits system may not be as generous by the time your son's kids come along. The benefits trap catches some families across the generations in a cycle of misery, caused by poverty of expectations - be proud your boy will avoid that.

Let your boy be proud of his dad, don't be bitter please.