Reduction in payments

maisy_daisy

After a 10 year battle, I finally started receiving payments from the CSA of £114 a week, to include some arrears. These payments came pretty regularly - so far so good.

However! For the last few months I have started to receive £15 a week, obviously a huge drop in the amounts received. Having had no correspondence to explain why this change, I contacted the "helpline" to be told that my ex had applied for a re-assessment due to a change in circumstances, and that when this had been completed I would be told the new amount.

I have since contacted the CSA twice more to chase this up, and have been told the same thing on both occasions, that I will be told when the re-assessment has been completed.

So am I right in thinking that my ex has contacted the CSA to say his income has dropped, and they have just told him to pay £15 a week, without actually doing any calculations? And what about if his income goes back up, he's hardly going to contact them for another re-assessment is he???

Kimberley

£114 a week? :eek: Blimey he must have had a good job. Has your ex had another child recently? Still, my sister only received £5 a week from her ex and he is a black cab driver in London earning heaps but the CSA doesn't seem bothered to get proof of a low wage.

Situations like a drop in Child support is why I always urge people to not include their CM payments into their budget. This will prevent a shock to the system when you could be worse off then you were. I even keep my Child Benefit seperate from my budget because I know that one day it will all stop.

borders_dude

He might be paying £15 a week just now but if when he gets his new assessment through it gets backdated so he will have arrears due to you if its worked out that he has to pay more than £15 a week.

kelloggs36

They certainly won't have told him to pay this amount - he has to pay the proper assessment until the new one is complete. He must have chosen to pay this amount.

Donedoingdebt

kelloggs36 wrote: »

They certainly won't have told him to pay this amount - he has to pay the proper assessment until the new one is complete. He must have chosen to pay this amount.

In which case, he will be building up arrears until the new assessment is complete, even though the helpline suggested this is correct????

kelloggs36

The CSA cannot tell somebody it is okay to underpay - their assessment stands until it has been changed. whilst he may be building up arrears now, when the assessment is done it will have reduced those arrears because the assessment is carried out from the date it was requested - so whilst today it may be £114 per week, it may reduce to £10 per week from last week, so those arrears won't actually exist in the end - iyswim. But the bottom line is that they cannot tell somebody to pay less pending the outcome of a new assessment. It's unlikely however, that they will do anything about it as the enforcement process is so long, it will have been sorted by then.