CSA Question

medw1974

Myself and my partner are currently going through a split-up. It is all very amicable however I have a few concerns over maintainance.

Once I move out she will have to claim Income Support, therefore the CSA will have to become involved.

According to the CSA website I will have to pay approximately £50/week, now I don't have a problem with this if the money is going to support my kids but from the reading I have done it seems that at best my ex will recieve at best £10 of this per week.

Is this the case or am I understanding this wrong?

Lady_S

That is right.

Need_More_Money_2

Lady_S wrote:

That is right.

so the government keeps the rest?

medw1974

Need_More_Money wrote:

so the government keeps the rest?

That's the impression I have reached. It seems so unfair that they will be no better off than a family where the absent parent does not contribute anything.

Need_More_Money_2

medw1974 wrote:

That's the impression I have reached. It seems so unfair that they will be no better off than a family where the absent parent does not contribute anything.

So does that mean that in some cases (depending on the amount of maintainence and the amount of income support) you would be better off paying the maintainence direct to your partner rather than claiming income support and involving the CSA? When does this happen? How much is income support worth?

Becles

Need_More_Money wrote:

so the government keeps the rest?

No - the maintenance is used to pay the Income Support.

Need_More_Money_2

Becles wrote:

No - the maintenance is used to pay the Income Support.

Ah I see. So, actually, what is happening is the income support is being reduced because of income from child maintenance? But what if the amount of child maintainence paid is more than the amount of income support (how much is that?)? Does the government keep the difference?

Becles

Need_More_Money wrote:

So does that mean that in some cases (depending on the amount of maintainence and the amount of income support) you would be better off paying the maintainence direct to your partner rather than claiming income support and involving the CSA? When does this happen? How much is income support worth?

Income Support varies depending on the circumstances of the claimant and his/her dependants.

If you are on Income Support, you may also be entitled to lots of other benefits such as Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, free school meals, help with uniform costs, free prescriptions and free dental treatment, free milk for under 5's, and so on.

The claimant would need to check what other benefits they could claim if they were just getting maintenance not Income Support, and make sure the maintenance is large enough to cover the other benefits they may not be entitled to.

medw1974

Need_More_Money wrote:

So does that mean that in some cases (depending on the amount of maintainence and the amount of income support) you would be better off paying the maintainence direct to your partner rather than claiming income support and involving the CSA? When does this happen? How much is income support worth?

I'm not sure - the amount of maintenance would have to be very high.

As far as I am aware income support rates are as follows:

Lone Parent Over 18: £57.45 +
Dependant Children: £45.58 (Per Child) +
Family Premium: £16.25

All these rates are per week. So my ex-partner will recieve £210.44 per week in Income Support (Based on 3 children) plus upto £10 a week maintenance.

Being on Income Support will also entitle them to full payment of rent and council tax benefit worth around another £75 per week. So all in all they will receive the equivalent of £300 per week in benefit.

So based on 25% of my net earnings being payable to the CSA I would have to have net earnings of at least £1200 per week to make it worth her while not claiming benefits.

Need_More_Money_2

medw1974 wrote:

As far as I am aware income support rates are as follows:

Lone Parent Over 18: £57.45 +
Dependant Children: £45.58 (Per Child) +
Family Premium: £16.25

That all seems unecessarily complicated. Surely if you are a lone parent you have at least one child and are a family - so why three components? Why not an amount for lone parents and then an additional amount for each extra child?

arnie&caseysma!

My partner and his ex-wife split up a few years ago. When he moved away she had to go and sort out her income support etc again and they wanted to inform the CSA so they could extort money out of him every month. She was very good about it and refused this and would not sign anything regarding CSA as they already have an arrangement where he is paying off the marital debt (and will be long after he would have stopped paying CSA) and as such he does not pay for his daughter. To get the CSA involved in a case like this would be sheer stupidity as by the time her share of the monthly debt payment was taken off the maintenance she would get about £15 per month! Somethings work better if you sort it yourselves rather than get the 'authorities and agnecies' involved. Have a go and see if you can sort something out between you, it will benefit you all in the end....