getting a bigger mortgage to avoid child support

charlearose

i have been recivieing c/s for a few years or arround 70 per week for my two children i am remarried ect

i have just heard that my ex is considering buying a new house with a much bigger mortgage in order not to pay child support
His wages went up by quite a lot last year but he never informed the csa they have now sent him a reassesment and i think it will go up so this is why he is thinking of buying a bigger house and mortgage so that he dose not have to pay this extra money to me this was his exact words to me

he is remarried and he lives with his wife and her two sons one who is at college and one just starting apprentiship in her housing association house

is this possible to do i mean if he deliberatly gets a new house with a much higher mortgage - probably double what he is paying now around say at the moment i think he pays around 300 a month rent
but if he take out a new mortgage of say 600 /800 a month dose this mean my child support will go down because of his higher commitments

His wife works full time -but the deal that they have is that she buy stuff for the house and he pays the rent /bills ect im assuming that this is what they will hope will continue if they buy a bigger .more expensive house
Do they the c/s take into account his wife earnings for the mortgage rent ect (i dont mean for child support ) but in order to pay the mortgage ect

thanks for any advice

Loopy_Girl

How long has your case being going on for? This is important so that you can get an accurate answer.

charlearose

seems like forever csa since around 2004/5 my kids are 10 /12

shell_542

If you've only been going through the CSA since 2004/2005 then you would be on the new rules I would have thought. This is based purely on his income. Takes into account no housing costs or his new wife's wages.

Could your case have started before 2003?

13Kent

At the risk of being controversial, and not wanting to offend, if he is renting at the moment, and has had an increase in wages maybe he can now afford a mortgage and wants to get a foot on the housing market.

I appreciate that everyone's circumstances are different, but...

I am a NRPP. My husbands previous marriage broke up as his wife had a series of affairs, and my husband lost the house that he had contributed to the mortgage to for years to his ex wife as part of the divorce settlement - she got the house for a fraction of what it was worth, as she was entitled to a bigger percentage of what it was worth than he was as she had the children living with her - leaving him (and now us) forced to rent - we would dearly love to get a foot on the housing market, but due to high CSA payments (we pay nearly £600 a month for 2 children) and the cost of mortgages, now it is becoming more and more difficult, as the disposable income the CSA says we need to live on does not leave much left over to save for a deposit or pay extra towards a mortgage. Unfortunately as time goes on it means when we finally do get a mortgage we will be lumbered with one that continues past our retirement age. She and her new husband continue to pay the original mortgage that her and my husband originally started.

He is obviously unhappy that his payments are going up and looking into ways to reduce them, however he may not have thought it through. If we could afford to go down that route to try to reduce our CSA costs, in the long run we would benefit, but in the short term, we would probably be worse off with our day to day finances as we would have lumbered ourselves with mortgage payments which in the current financial climate are likely only to increase. - Shooting yourself in the foot comes to mind!!

However, in answer to your question

I think it depends if you are on CSA 1 or not. If you are on CSA 1 some of his housing costs will be taken into account, but it is only the interest payments, not amounts paid of the capital. I think any endowment costs associated with the mortgage can also be included - although nowadays I don't think many mortgage companies offer them but I'm not sure if that also applies to any other sort of insurance taken out in respect of a mortgage.(I'm sure someone else on here will have a better idea). Any change would not be on a pound for pound basis against his disposable income either - the CSA have yet another complicated formula to work out how much disposable income he has! Also his wife's earnings will probably be included as she has the ability to contribute towards living costs which will increase his disposable income. ( I don't think your husbands earnings are included as part of your assessment). You may find that this has already been included in the assessment, but I don't think that whatever agreement they have between them about who pays for what has a bearing on how the CSA make their calculation - it is more black and white, and will only based on her income and ability to contribute towards day to day costs thereby increasing the NRP's disposable income as she is able to contribute towards costs that he would have to pay if he were living alone.

I believe on CSA 2 his wages, the number of dependent children and how often he has his own children has a bearing on the calculation, but things like housing costs and partners income are not taken into account.

shell_542

Indeed, if he is on CSA2 then the intention behind the mortgage increase would probably have nothing to do with child support as it doesn't affect it. Its easy to assume that someone is doing something for the worst when they're not. If you're on CSA2 which you seem to be if your case was opened in 04/05 then him taking on a bigger mortgage could leave him worse off. His income may have gone up, but his child support will too after the reassessment and and a higher mortgage. Maybe they're getting a bigger mortgage purely because they want one.

speedster

indeed, you will be on csa2. therefore his housing costs will not be taken into consideration anyway. so he'd be shooting himself in the foot by doing it. although i suspect that maintenance avoidance probably isn't the reason. it's far easier to fabricate an inflated rent to do that if the case was csa1.

sorry, but if his wages went down, would you be willing to take less? also, if he is making a life for himself, which incidentally will in the end benefit your children, why the concern?

just seems like clouded judgement and a wee case of sour grapes really.

kingfisherblue

As others have said, you appear to be on CSA2 (claims after March 2003). If this is the case, the formula is quite simple, assuming your ex earns more than £200 a week net pay. First, the CSA will take off a percentage for any child living in his household (15% for one child, 20% for two and 25% for three or more children). From the figure that is left, you wil receive a percentage (the same as above) depending on how many children he is supporting (20% because you have two children with your ex). This is reduced if your children stay with their father for at least 52 nights a year (reduced by one seventh for 52 nights, two sevenths for 104 nights).

You mentioned that his wife has two children, one at college and one just starting an apprenticeship. For the purposes of the CSA, a child is up to the age of 19 and in full time education, but not higher education (such as university). So the amount you get might depend on what sort of course the lad at college is doing - if it is further edcuation, and he is under 19, he will still be classed as a dependent. If it is higher education, he won't be included in the calculations. I'm not sure whether apprenticeships are included as dependents or not. Whether it is or not, if your ex gets a mortgage it shouldn't have an effect on you as housing costs are not taken into consideration if you are on CSA2.

Personally I feel that £70 a week for two children is quite a decent amount - I get £37 for three kids!

kelloggs36

IF this is a CS1 case, then contrary to 13Kent's advice the FULL housing costs will be offset against the NRP income which would reduce the amount assessable for child support. You can apply for a departure/variation on the grounds that his partner can contribute; this way the CSA reduce the elgible housing costs to offset against the NRP income proportionately to what the NRPP earns. This won't have already happened. This could result in the assessment remaining the same, or it could reduce it slightly or even increase it - without the figures I can't tell.

If the case was open after March 2003 then it will be a CS2 case and housing costs are irrelevant as they aren't taken into account. Do you have your last assessment - what does it say about how it was calculated?

13Kent

We were under the impression that with a mortgage only the interest part of the payment is taken into account as the CSA ask for two amounts - the amount paid off the capital and the amount paid off the interest and the interest rate, but in the case of renting the full housing costs are taken into account.

speedster

13Kent wrote: »

We were under the impression that with a mortgage only the interest part of the payment is taken into account as the CSA ask for two amounts - the amount paid off the capital and the amount paid off the interest and the interest rate, but in the case of renting the full housing costs are taken into account.

correct.

csa1 was a total minefield and very complicated. some are better off, some are worse off.

personnally i think it was fairer in some ways as at least you had some protected income and some of your living costs were allowed for.

unlike csa2 where it's a case of "one size fits all" when it clearly doesn't.