CSA - Should I be on the old or new system?

OnlyHope

Could it be they are calulating on household income? I presume the mother started to claim benifts in May and this is why I received letter.

CSA_Help

OnlyHope wrote: »

Could it be they are calulating on household income? I presume the mother started to claim benifts in May and this is why I received letter.

Not nececarily maybe they have been trying to trace you over a period of time .Surely on your assesment it tells when the affective date is from ?

OnlyHope

I will check the date on the letters. I have always lived and worked in the same area so I would not have been hard to find.

Fi27

After 15 years as the parent with care i am now the non-resident parent as my son has decided to go live with his grandmother after we had a big row. The grandmother (not my mum the other one) has applied to the CSA. I am happy to pay but the difference between how they treat the resident & non-resident parents are completely different. They have harassed me and had me in tears several times lately with their less than understanding attitude. Before a shedule of payments had even been sent out to me they rang up wanting credit/debit card payment of Arrears?! of £65 because my direct debit mandate has missed the first payment date, or they were going to have to send my case to debt management! I offered to send a cheque or for them to take 2 payments on the first month but they refused. I told them on several occasions i was not giving bank or card details over the phone so they were being extremely unflexible and as i had offered them the £65 twice now and they didnt want it so were therfore being unreasonable. Eventually they opted for 2 months payments this month.

It makes me wonder how my ex managed to build up arrears of over £1000 and was able to pay it back at £2.50 a week.

We are on the new rules so my partners wages are not taken into account but then neither is my mortgage payments, bills, loans etc.

My advice would be to ring them, tell them you have taken financial advice and you cannot afford the unreasonable sum they have suggested but are willing to negotiate. Work out what you can afford to pay and over how long. As far as i am aware they back date the claim to when they acctually got in touch with you, that's what they told me when they rang me on my mobile to tell me that a claim was being made for child support.

And if they ring me again all cloak & dagger saying they are from a goverment agency and can i just confirm a few details i'm going to tell them they have the wrong number cos i am not James Bond and hang up!

Good luck and dont let them bully you.

kelloggs36

OnlyHope wrote: »

Could it be they are calulating on household income? I presume the mother started to claim benifts in May and this is why I received letter.

They don't calculate maintenance on household income, they never have; it has always been the NRP income only, and the household income is used to determine whether the NRP can pay the full amount or not. If not, then it is reduced, if they can afford to pay the full amount, then that is it, fixed it doesn't increase.

The only time it could increase is if the PWC applies for a departure on the grounds that the partner can contribute towards the housing costs, otherwise it doesn't change.