Child Maintenance (CSA) questions (merged)

Zara33

:eek: :eek: OMG don't let him go through with this!! he can't go on assuming he might be the father, a DNA test via the CSA costs a few hundred quid and if he is not the father the money is refunded.

If it was me i would certainly pay for the DNA first, assumptions could be very costly and avoided IF he is not the father, but if he is the father you need to contact the CSA and get them to do an review.

kellyaicken

Thanks Zara, I have tried to tell him this but he says that he is 99 per cent sure that the child is his, they did live together, and apparantly the opportunity in the short time that they were together just was not there for it to be another mans child. I dont know!! Even the couple of hundred quid for the dna test at the moment seems like thousands of pounds. Dont even know how we are going to pay the mortgage this month now!! I could cry!! x

kellyaicken

My partner has spoken to the csa, and they agree that having to pay out nearly £600 a month for a child he has never even laid eyes on is rather a lot, they say that it is a debt that needs to be paid (even at the cost now of the 4 children that are in my partners life every day, and are now going to suffer on a daily basis) I am waiting for a phone call from csa now ,so they can confirm that myself and my 2 children also live with my partner, although they have said that this will not change the inital debt that he owes because obviuosly it is all being back dated.

Zara33

(((((hugs))))) kellyaicken

He reallys needs to speak to the CSA.
£500.00 for one kiddie seems a heck of a lot of money, the longer he ignores things the more things are going to cost him.
I would assume that he has had some form of contact from the CSA before they did a deductions of earnings order, they usually use this as a last resort.

kellyaicken

Thanks so much...xx He spoke to Citizens Advice and said to them Why are you going to be taking it out of my wages with no warning, and should I not have recieved a letter warning me that this was going to happen.....and the lady said that all correspondence from the csa must have been going to a different address. So, i guess that they would have been sending correspondence, but to my partners old address, hence not receivieng a blooming thing!

kelloggs36

You need to know how far back this goes in terms of the claim? How much are the arrears, from what dates? The reason I am asking, is that if the case is an old one, it is being calculated under the old rules - in which case he needs to provide more info than these days, i.e housing costs. Under the old rules, the only way to get a reduction in maintenance for paying for other children, is if the other children are being paid for via the CSA. I had a case of a bloke who was paying over 1k PER MONTH in child maintenance - 300 under a private agreement, and the rest through the CSA to another woman. Because the 300 case was not through CSA we could not take it into consideration.

The only way round this is for you partner to pay ALL his maintenance through the CSA. I believe that way, he will only pay 25% of his net income out, and this will be split between the 2 PWCs in proportion to how many children each one has. He will also get the 25% reduction because of the children in your household. How much is his gross annual salary? Knowing this, will enable us to determine how much he would be paying if all payments were via the CSA.

kelloggs36

kellyaicken wrote:

My partner has spoken to the csa, and they agree that having to pay out nearly £600 a month for a child he has never even laid eyes on is rather a lot, they say that it is a debt that needs to be paid (even at the cost now of the 4 children that are in my partners life every day, and are now going to suffer on a daily basis) I am waiting for a phone call from csa now ,so they can confirm that myself and my 2 children also live with my partner, although they have said that this will not change the inital debt that he owes because obviuosly it is all being back dated.

You may feel that your children are losing out, but are they all his? If not, unless you cannot claim maintenance from your ex (due to him being deceased or in prison) then perhaps you should claim yourself. I understand that there may be reasons for not doing so, but the responsiblity is your partners, to support ALL his children, whether he has seen them or not. I have already explained how to go about this, but it may be a bit difficult if his ex won't agree to going to the CSA. He can, there is nothing to stop HIM from making such and application.

kelloggs36

kellyaicken wrote:

Thanks so much...xx He spoke to Citizens Advice and said to them Why are you going to be taking it out of my wages with no warning, and should I not have recieved a letter warning me that this was going to happen.....and the lady said that all correspondence from the csa must have been going to a different address. So, i guess that they would have been sending correspondence, but to my partners old address, hence not receivieng a blooming thing!

He could prove that he didn't receive any correspondence then by providing evidence of the date he moved. They can only enforce payment if they can prove that the address they sent the MEF to was his current address and that he would have received it. I had a case in the Summer where a Court threw out a case because of this and the CSA could NOT enforce the payment.

kellyaicken

Thanks so much for your advice and for taking the time to reply. Although my partner pays £50 per week to ex wife for the 2 children he sees regulary, he also pays £60 to the childminder. The CSA have already said to him this morning when he mentioned this, that he should be paying £91.00 per month to his ex-wife for the maintenance of the 2 boys. Bearing in mind his take home pay is £2,700 per month, would this mean then, by going through the CSA for everything that he would be better off than paying £570 for backdated arrears to the child he has never seen plus £260 for current maintenance. I am sorry, this is all new to me. I really appreciate your help. Thanks.

kelloggs36

1. He needs to prove he didn't get the MEF - he could get the arrears completely wiped out as he had no knowledge.

2. Presumably, it is a newish claim (since 2003) in which case, he would be paying a max of 506 pounds per month. THis is 2700 per year multiplied by 12 and divided by 52 for weekly income of 623. Then deduct 25% from this, which is 155 per week. He would then have to pay 25% of what is left in maintenance. Multiply this figure by 52 and then divide by 12 to get the monthly figure. This can only happen if both exs go to the CSA.