Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

dumpy

Aahhh, but the little letters from the CSA keep arriving..... When we rang up to talk to them they said that even if she was living with us, her mum would get Child benefit and so would be entitled to CSA money..... I pointed out she was 19, working and no longer in receipt of CB (as well as living with us ful time). They said case would be closed and dah dah, nothing, just demands for more money.

Dad's solution? - put head so far into the sand you can just about see his toe nails.

Big sigh....

madmagic_2

So, let me get this right

Say hubbie brings home £1000 a month after tax, he is allowed 20 o/o for our children, then he has to pay 15 o/o to ex for child from 1st marriage. Plus older child could go to CSA for money?

£1000- 20 o/o = £200
£800 * 15 o/o = £120

So we have £880 left to pay all bills- but less than this if eldest goes to CSA.
Plus Tax credit people class income as £1000 a month because maintenance pymts don`t matter.

So thats a fair system?

Hubbies` ex left him for someone else- he had to pay her out-and taken on joint debts.

missk_ensington

dumpy- So you do everything the CSA tells you even when they are blatently wrong?!!!!? If so you deserve to have no money! Any intelligent person would throw letters away completely disregarding its content, stop all payments, and write a long, angry letter to CSA HQ.

Also, if your daughters mum is getting Child Benefit it may be because they pay up until end of August or something but it will be stopping in the next month or so!

urban_spirit

missk_ensington wrote:

dumpy- So you do everything the CSA tells you even when they are blatently wrong?!!!!? If so you deserve to have no money! Any intelligent person would throw letters away completely disregarding its content, stop all payments, and write a long, angry letter to CSA HQ.

....and that will get you nowhere. Although the situation makes you angry, if you react with that emotion it could get you in deeper.

Dumpy have you written to the csa to advise of a change in circs? If you have, are there arrears youre are paying off (I dont know your circs)? If not, it could be that sd's mum hasnt told csa of change. If thats the case, I suggest going to local CAB and ask them to contact csa on your behalf as they have more clout. If you write to csa hq (wherever that is!)they will pass letter on to your local csa to deal with as they will have access to your case.

urban_spirit

Madmagic - it is my understanding that csa are not taking on private client cases, and as hubbys ex is not in receipt of benefits she would fall under this.

Spendless

madmagic wrote:

Daughter does have a part time job and earns £200-£300 a month- I agree that she should pay board, but do not think it should come for maintence money.Her father`s contribution is towards any expenses incurred and mothers contribution is board and lodings. Although she should pay a contribution to household-say broadband bill-as she is main user.

But I always thought maintenace was for the child- not to fund her lifestyle?

This is JMO. I am not in these circumstances but of my friends that are this seems to be a common complaint/problem. I think you need to see the money as going into 1 giant pot not "your money" should be used for x but not y. If your sd pays her mum board out of her maintainance money then this should leave her with more of her earnings to pay off any debts she incurrs. Bit like me deciding to spend all last months CB down the pub but even if I do I still need to find the money to clothe/feed, pay out for kids from another income source.
Whether your sd is financially disciplined enough to put her earnings away is something you all need to work out.

I was under the impression that maintainance stopped when the child went to college/uni anyway? . If that is the case then won't you be able to put the previous maintaince money into a bank account without going thru the ex?

missk_ensington

Urban spirit- I disagree, there is no way you keep handing over money when you know a) you're not legally obliged to pay and b) you'll never get it refunded. It could take 3-4 months for CSA to acknowledge and change circs by which point you could have flushed £100-200+ down the drain, maybe more or less I don't know.

I would stop payment, write to them, and IF you still have to pay then make sure the money is there to hand over but I know unless there's another aspect to this, you do not have to pay for a child you live with and I sure as hell wouldn't!

urban_spirit

missk_ensington wrote:

Urban spirit- I disagree, there is no way you keep handing over money when you know a) you're not legally obliged to pay and b) you'll never get it refunded. It could take 3-4 months for CSA to acknowledge and change circs by which point you could have flushed £100-200+ down the drain, maybe more or less I don't know.

I would stop payment, write to them, and IF you still have to pay then make sure the money is there to hand over but I know unless there's another aspect to this, you do not have to pay for a child you live with and I sure as hell wouldn't!

And i've seen a lot of people get into trouble doing it this way round.

As I said in my post, if its not arrears thats being paid then the op should get CAB involved (or another professional body) then they hold more clout and the 'could take 3-4 months' will not apply.
CSA will not hang on for payment for 3-4 months while this is being sorted if you stop payment and write to them, and any overpayment should be refunded.

You can talk to either your local CAB or your local MP for help, ultimately its the op's decision.

urban_spirit

missk_ensington wrote:

Urban spirit- I disagree, there is no way you keep handing over money when you know a) you're not legally obliged to pay and b) you'll never get it refunded. It could take 3-4 months for CSA to acknowledge and change circs by which point you could have flushed £100-200+ down the drain, maybe more or less I don't know.

I would stop payment, write to them, and IF you still have to pay then make sure the money is there to hand over but I know unless there's another aspect to this, you do not have to pay for a child you live with and I sure as hell wouldn't!

Apologies - for some reason my post was posted twice - ???
(getting everything in duplicate from MSE today)

dumpy

Ahh MissK-ensington Can I point out the comment I made about "father sticks head into sand"

There is only so much I can do, I'm not making the payments and if he wants to just pay and hope it goes away that his problem (although he will probably still be paying when she draws her pension). Light bulb moment? there is not a glimmer there at the moment......

This has been ongoing since before I met him, so I'm trying to make sense of a very large CSA jigsaw.

Some is for arrers and I do understand that needs to be paid. It just seems very odd that as fast as he pays off the arrers the CSA add more, when at the same time we are supporting her as she lives with us......

Oh and if you don't pay they can get very nasty........

I'll keep working on this. Maybe a letter will get a better response, if not I'll get him to ask for a face to face meeting and go along and support him. He doesn't want to stop the payments HE KNOWS he needs to pay back the bit he missed and he is trying to do this but I wish they would stop adding more, I feel like we are chasing a moving goalpost....

But if you have a money useless OH it's very difficult to try and get them to OPEN THEIR EYES and SORT IT OUT. Guess what he is getting for Christmas? A certain MSE book!