housing costs on csa 1

sss1

Im being reassesed and am trying to work out what i will be paying. i have a lot of overtime on my pay slips but it is not guarenteed and am likely to be on a flat wage very soon. Will they take this into consideration or will i have to wait, then submit my payslips with my basic wage on??

I have looked at the way maintenance is calculated and the only thing i can not get right is the housing costs. My mortgage is £125 per week, however from reading the old case leaflets it states "for non resident parents housing costs that count towards exempt income are normally £80 a week or half of the net income, whichever is higher".

I take this to mean that they will use half of my net income for housing costs as this is a lot higher than what i pay towards my mortgage.

Can anyone tell me if this is correct??

Many Thanks

bdt1

If you do not have a partner who lives with you , you will usually be allowed 100% of your housing costs as your housing allowance, ie your full rent or mortgage as your allowance.

If your overtime is not guaranteed you need to address this with CSA, but others may better advise, I suspect CSA will take an average wage, but maybe you need clarification from your employer in form of documentation to state how you stand with overtime and specifying what your basic wage is.

Of course it goes without saying, send all letters recorded delivery, keep Royal Mail arcode, and print off proof of receipt, keep a paper file of all copies of documents etc etc, or the CSA are well known for 'losing or denying' such documents were , have ever been received, or have ever existed

applecharlotte

Not very helpful to the OP i'm afraid but i needed to vet. It doesnt really matter what your housing costs are. My husband was reassessed when he was made redundant and took a much lower paying job. They reassessed him at £0 but the PWC ( i use the term loosely) wasn't happy so they just dumped any old figure on us based on absolutely nothing!

rippedoffnewwife

They will take your wage slips and do the assessment trust me they will not be interested if it’s overtime or not they will use it as an ‘average’ wage regardless if you don’t earn that amount on a regular basis. No matter how much you try and tell them how you normally earn it will not make a speck of difference. Sounds grim I know but Ive just had this with them.

Donedoingdebt

You can request that your average net pay be averaged for up to the previous 12 months payslips to cover for any unusual spikes & dips in overtime payments.

If you have regularly worked high overtime which is shortly going to be reduced or come to an end, contact the CSA on the first day of the first week in which overtime is reduced/stopped, by phone in the first instance & follow this up straight away with confirmation via an email or letter sent by recorded delivery.

Inform them that you will provide the payslips in due course, as & when they arrive. That way, when they've received your 2nd payslip, they should backdate the reassessment to the date that you first contacted them. If you do not contact them before you receive the 2 payslips, then the reassessment cannot be backdated.

With the mortgage, they will only allow the £125 per week that you've mentioned, not half your net pay. I believe the "half the net pay" statement is intended for NRP's whose mortgage payments are much higher & the ceiling for claiming is half the net pay & no more. Another poster, Kelloggs, may or may not confirm this!

They should normally allow you the full mortgage payment allowance unless the PWC applies for a departure on the grounds that the NRP's partner can contribute to the mortgage payments.

Keep copies of all emails/letters sent to CSA & received by you as you may well need them as proof when the CSA make the inevitable bulls up!

kelloggs36

Your housing costs will be 100% as a starting point. BUT if this is higher than half your net income, then it will be restricted to half your net income. If you have children living with you then the exemption does not apply and you will get 100% regardless.

kelloggs36

Your question read that if half your net income is higher than your mortgage, will you get half your net income as housing costs - the answer is no, it will be the actual mortgage costs.