csa 'varation'

kifiad

I wonder if anyone has any experience or advice on the csa'variation'
I am currently a student and am accordingly assessesed as nil on the income element for the csa.I do have money in excess of 65K(this is apparently the savings limit the csa allow) that came from the sale of the house that I shared with my daughters father until 2005.This money is earmarked for a house purchase. My daughter went to live with her father six months ago and the csa have rung me today and suggested that the money I have in excess of the 65k could be seen as available for the upkeep of my daughter.
How do they decide what is savings and how would they then assess what I have to pay?
Incidently when I tried to obtain money from her father via the csa they did not take into account the savings he had (he too had the same amount as me from the sale of our house).
Any advice or opinions would be very welcome

kelloggs36

They would use the interest that you have in exces of 65k to assess you on.

kifiad

Oops, just noticed two typos in my original post
Thanks for the speedy reply- so would it be that they would assess the interest over 65K as income and take a percentage of this amount ? I am more worried that the csa would want to take chunks of my capital to pay for my daughters' upkeep-can they do this? The csa (as usual ) seem very vague about how this assessment works-is there a fact sheet or website anywhere that might give me a definite answer ? or should i start spending money like water?!!

Jet

You're right this is a very vague situation and nobody seems to know a lot about it. I'd be interested to hear what the answer is myself.

I don't think they look at the interest but they have some formula they use themselves. I suspect it is probably higher than the interest you are probably getting on it in the bank though.

kelloggs36

It may be, BUT they won't take any of the capital.

Cozworth806

kifiad wrote: »

Oops, just noticed two typos in my original post
Thanks for the speedy reply- so would it be that they would assess the interest over 65K as income and take a percentage of this amount ? I am more worried that the csa would want to take chunks of my capital to pay for my daughters' upkeep-can they do this? The csa (as usual ) seem very vague about how this assessment works-is there a fact sheet or website anywhere that might give me a definite answer ? or should i start spending money like water?!!

The usual method is to take the capital sum, multiply by the current standard rate (8% at present) and unless there is any other income that should also be looked at such as tax credits etc then that is your annual income.
£65,000 times 8% divided by 52 weeks equals £100pw, or a £5pw MC. Any more than that and you will be into the reduced rate amounts unless you have more than £130k in which case it is the standard percentages
If it gets looked at then you can argue that the money is there to buy a house and also to pay your way through college. This MAY come under the reasonableness test.

kifiad

Thanks for that-think I'm starting to have an idea of how it works now-I shall be extremely rigorous in asking the csa lots of questions before giving them any information-good idea too to explain that I have also been saving for my degree, as this does account for money that I have saved that is extra to the house sale proceeds.It just seems so unfair that I might be penalised for having worked and saved hard ,rather than spending it and claiming benefit as her father is .

kelloggs36

But they are your children who need to be supported - it is your choice to go to uni don't forget - the cost of bringing them up should be factored in, not the other way round.