will we be moved csa1 to csa2

kelloggs36

Sorry, it will be more, but not as much as 25%. It is £5 plus 45% of the remaining £30 for 3 children, which is £18 per week.

Booradley_2

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Under CSA2 the amount would be 25% of her net income which in this case would be £32.50pw

If the children stay with you both for some nights then the amount would be reduced by 1/7, 2/7 etc etc

Do you have any children together as this would have an effect on the amount?

£6 for 3 children is a really really low amount - people that are on benefits pay more than that for one child!

1) I thought under csa2 the 25% was for income over £200 and that incomes between £100 and £200 there was a sliding scale.

2) they do stay at least one night.

3) No, no other children.

4) Yes we know it's low. It's the minimum because of wifes low earnings and housing costs(mortgage).

Re 4 above. That's precisely the dilemma about paying off the mortgage.

Disclaimer I am happy that this board is non judgemental. We obviously help to support those children in many ways (cash to the children directly, holidays, clothes, school trips etc). We will try anything to keep down the amount of money going to the PWC as it would just end up in the pub till.

Loopy_Girl

You are quite correct about the sliding scale - my apologies. If you see above though you will see that Kelloggs has worked it out - but this is only on the assumption that you don't receive any WTC/CTC.

Do you?

Booradley_2

No. No benefits for either of us. So (remembering my original dilemma of paying off the mortgage) we stand as:

On CSA1 wife pays the minimum £6 and we have to keep the mortgage

If we were on CSA2 she would pay around £18 and it wouldn't matter if we had a mortgage. So we would probably pay it off.

But if we pay off the mortgage whilst we are still on CSA1 then the payments would increse due to no housing costs. To what I wonder?

Boo

Booradley_2

Checking out offset mortgages now. I can offset all of the interest and basically have a mortgage that is costing nothing to run. Sure I won't make any interest on my savings but I wouldn't if I used them to actually pay off the mortgage.

Blob

The basic principal on CSA 1 is 30% but if they have made a mess of your case then who knows as they will make it to suit themselvs as they are trying to do with mine!

Booradley_2

30% of what Blob? income after personal allowance and housing costs? Also there are tree children.

Boo

Strapped

Booradley wrote: »

obvious tactic that the NRP could take out the largest mortgage possible, thereby creating large housing costs which woul reflect on the assesment.
Boo

This is already "combated" by a cap on the NRP's housing costs. (No cap on PWC's housing costs though - they can keep taking out home loans 'till the cows come home but that's another story).

In your situation, you might be right to look into offset mortgages. Keep your mortgage payments the same as they are now and don't rock the boat. (You can set the mortgage up so that the mortgage company takes the "gross" amount each month, althou with the savings offset against it you will be effectively overpaying each month).

ETA: Forgot to say, not a chance of getting moved from CSA1 to CSA2.

LizzieS_2

Booradley wrote: »

No. No benefits for either of us. So (remembering my original dilemma of paying off the mortgage) we stand as:

On CSA1 wife pays the minimum £6 and we have to keep the mortgage

If we were on CSA2 she would pay around £18 and it wouldn't matter if we had a mortgage. So we would probably pay it off.

But if we pay off the mortgage whilst we are still on CSA1 then the payments would increse due to no housing costs. To what I wonder?

Boo

I didn't think the payments automatically increased if you paid off the mortgage - I thought a new assessment would only occur if either the nrp or pwc asked for one.

How would pwc know you had paid off your mortgage?

On another note, the pwc could at any time apply for a departure to reduce your wife's housing costs (in other words request the csa take a % of the housing costs rather than all, as you could contribute towards the mortgage).

Booradley_2

Thanks strapped.
May take out offset mortgage. No interest will accrue due to offsetted savings, but pay off he capital each month. That would surely count as housing costs because even without interest we are still paying off a mortgage.

Thanks LizzieS
The PWC wouldn't know about us no longer having a mortgage but I would hate it to be discovered down the line and be reassesed with possible back payments. Was also wondering if a reassesment might happen next year when wife's eldest turns 19.
On the other point you mention: I believe only half the mortgage is being allowed as is, as you point out, I am contributing the other half.

Boo